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SOUTHERN  BRANCH, 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA, 

Li3RARY, 

il-DS  ANGELES.  CALIF. 


THE  UNSEEN  SIDE  OF  CHILD  LIFE 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK   •    BOSTON    •    CHICAGO  •    DALLAS 
ATLANTA   •    SAN    FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •    BOMBAY  •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


THE  UNSEEN  SIDE 
OF  CHILD  LIFE 

For  the  Guardians  of  Young  Children 


BT 

ELIZABETH  HARRISON 

Author  of 

"A   Study  of  Child-Nature,"   "Misundebstood 

Children,"  '^^hen  Children  Ere," 

"In      Story      Land,"      "Some 

Silent  Teachers,"  Etc. 


"The  day  of  days,  the  feast-day  of  life, 
t*  when  the  inner  eye  opens  to  the  unity 
of    things."— Ralfs    Waldo   Emebson. 


NEW   YORK 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

1922 


\ 


-TV, 


4  Q  3  5  4 


PRINTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 


Copyright,  1922 
By  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.      Published  January,  1922. 


FERRIS 

PRINTING    COMPANY 

NEW  YORK    CITY 


\  \  s 


this  book  is  dedicated  to 

Belle  Woodson 

foe  whom  my  love  has  steadily  increased  dubinc 
the  twenty  yeabs  we  have  lfv'ed  together. 

Chicago,  Elizabeth  Haeeison. 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS 

Introduction 9 

Processional 12 

.    Visitors  from  the  Outside  World    .  24 

*•  Mastering  the  Machine 61 

'^\v  The  Invisible  Bridge 90 

The  Child's  Art  World 119 

Recessional 156 

^    Present  Day  Tendencies 163 


THE  UNSEEN  SIDE  OF 
CHILD  LIFE 

INTRODUCTION 

It  is  an  acknowledged  fact  among  the 
leaders  in  the  educational  world  that  there 
are  three  mighty  forces  upon  which  civiliza- 
tion depends.  They  are  inherited  ability,* 
right  kind  of  environment,!  and  the  develop- 
ing will-power  in  man,  which  latter  may  be 
so  strengthened  and  trained  that  it  recog- 
nizes whatever  is  best  in  the  disposition  or 
talent  inherited  and  will  make  use  of  the 
environing  conditions  which  aid  in  the  de- 
velopment of  these  best  inherited  character- 
istics. But  the  will-power  of  the  individual 
cannot  develop  alone  but  must  receive  from 
the  social  whole,  and  in  return  give  to  the 
social  whole  or  community  of  which  it  is  a 


*  In  my  "Study  of  Child  Nature"  I  have  endeavored 
to  show  liow  to  encourage  the  better  inherited  instincts. 

tin  my  "  Ttco  Children  of  the  Foot  Hills"  I  have 
related  how  I  made  use  of  environment  in  helping  two 
little  children  to  realize  themselves  aa  part  of  a 
Bocial  whole. 

9 


10  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

part  the  best  it  has  to  give.  This  will-power, 
therefore,  in  man  is  the  most  important  of 
these  three  great  forces.  It  is  called  by 
various  names :  "  self -activity,"  "  self-mak- 
ing," "  auto  education,"  "  character  build- 
ing," "  ideal  end,"  "  freedom,"  and  so  on. 
Last,  but  not  least,  by  those  whose  faith  has 
increased  to  insight,  it  is  designated  as  the 
"  divine  element  in  humanity,"  which  trans- 
forms men  from  mere  animal  life  into  sons 
of  God. 

The  purpose  of  this  book  is  to  show  that 
much  may  be  done  to  free  children  from 
many  of  the  limitations  of  inherited  traits 
and  too  confined  an  environment,  and  to 
give  to  each  young  life  some  of  the  joy  of 
the  inner  growth  of  will-power,  as  well  as 
the  muscular  control  of  the  body,  both  of 
which  rightly  belong  to  the  realm  of  child- 
hood. 

I  once  heard  a  superintendent  of  the  pub- 
lic schools  of  a  large  city  say  to  an  assembly 
of  six  or  seven  hundred  teachers,  "  Of 
course,  we  do  not  expect  a  little  child  in 
the  kindergarten  to  obey  any  law  but  his 
own  caprice,  and  we  do  not  expect  much 
voluntary  obedience  in  the  first  grade.  But 
somewhere,  somehow,  between  the  end  of  the 


Processional  11 

first  grade  and  the  end  of  the  high  school, 
every  boy  and  girl  should  have  learned  how 
to  submit  his  or  her  will  to  the  law  of  the 
school  and  the  law  of  the  land,  else  he  or 
she  will  be  sent  out  into  the  world  an  unde- 
sirable citizen." 

This  is  foolishness,  unless  he  meant  coer- 
cion when  he  said  obedience,  and  yet  co- 
ercion, if  necessary,  should  begin  in  the 
nursery.  In  fact,  it  has  to  begin  there. 
What  I  hope  to  show  is  how  it  may  begin 
BO  early  that  the  child  in  arms  may  learn 
that  there  are  certain  things  which  he  must 
not  do.  For  upon  this  matter-of-course 
obedience  to  necessary  laws,  depends  the 
foundation  of  health,  of  family  harmony, 
of  business  honesty,  of  patriotic  citizenship 
and  of  a  reasonable  religion. 


12  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 


PROCESSIONAL 

Just  across  the  way  from  my  home,  is  a 
large  open  space,  near  the  center  of  which 
stands  an  old  oak  tree.  Its  twisted  and 
gnarled  branches  tell  of  the  many  storms 
through  which  it  has  passed,  and  its 
straight,  sturdy  trunk  tells  of  how  it  has 
mastered  the  tempest  and  has  gone  on  grow- 
ing. Now,  in  its  old  age,  it  reveals  an 
inspiring  story  of  oak-tree  life,  for  we  all 
know  that  deep  down  under  the  ground  are 
the  roots  which  gave  to  it  the  strength  and 
nourishment  it  needed  to  make  it  a  noble 
specimen  of  the  oak-tree  race. 

We  know  that  the  trunk  and  the  branches, 
the  twigs  and  the  leaves  and  shining  acorns 
could  not  have  grown  and  matured  without 
the  help  of  these  unseen,  often  unthought  of, 
tiny  root  fibers  below  the  ground.  They 
have  continuously  received  nourishment  from 
the  mysterious  power  which  Mother  Earth 
gives.  We  know  not  how,  but  we  do  know 
that  the  thousands  of  forms  of  tree-life  are 
dependent  upon  this  same  invisible  power 
for  growth,  each  after  its  own  kind.    Tree 


Processional  13 

surgeons  tell  us  that  any  injury  done  to 
these  unseen  rootlets  and  any  lack  of  proper 
soil  for  these  same  rootlets  to  absorb  and 
transform  into  tree-life,  lessens  and  mars 
the  beauty  and  symmetry  of  the  tree  whieli 
we  see  above  ground. 

This  is  only  an  analogy,  it  is  true.  Yet  is 
it  not  through  the  visible  world  and  the  laws 
which  govern  it  that  we  get  glimpses  of  the 
invisible  spiritual  world  and  its  laws? 
Every  insight  into  the  ethical  as  well  as  into 
the  religious  world  we  receive  or  we  com- 
municate through  the  analogies  of  language. 
We  speak  of  a  "  straight "  man  when  we 
mean  an  honest  man ;  of  a  "  warm  heart " 
when  we  mean  a  sympathetic  nature.  We 
speak  of  the  "  bent  twig  "  when  we  tell  of 
the  warped  life  of  a  misunderstood  child. 
So,  too,  we  have  been  taught  by  the  Great 
Teacher  to  say  "  Our  Father "  when  we 
speak  of  the  Infinite  Creative  Power  that 
awakens  reverence  and  quickens  prayer  and 
praise.  Comfort  and  consolation  come  to 
the  sorrowing  heart  when  the  spirit  of  some 
loved  one  has  laid  aside  its  earthly  body  and 
there  come  to  the  mind  these  words :  "  In 
my  Father's  house  are  many  mansions:  If 
it  were  not  so,  I  would  have  told  you." 


14  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

Let,  us,  therefore,  return  to  the  unspeak- 
ably great  and  significant  lesson  given  us 
by  this  marvelous  analogy  between  the  life 
of  man  and  the  life  of  the  tree;  yet  how 
blindly  we  stumble  on  in  the  greater  work 
of  caring  for  and  nurturing  the  unseen  side 
of  child-life! 

Do  we  not  all  know  parents  who  seem  to 
think  healthy  bodies,  fairly  comfortable 
surroundings  and  as  much  freedom  as  is 
compatible  with  adult  comfort  are  all  that 
a  child  needs?  Do  we  not  all  know  that 
in  thousands  of  homes  too  little  thought  is 
given  to  the  guiding  of  the  affections  and 
emotions  towards  a  sympathetic  love  for 
the  best  and  most  beautiful  in  this  wonder- 
ful world  of  created  things? 

Do  we  not  all  know  mothers  and  fathers 
who  have  failed  to  discern  the  tiny,  embry- 
onic efforts  of  the  will  in  an  infant  strug- 
gling to  express  himself?  Were  it  not  so, 
we  would  have  in  our  nurseries  more  balls 
to  roll  or  toss,  more  blocks  with  which  to 
build,  more  rag  dolls  which  the  child  could 
dress  and  undress,  more  low-hung  black- 
boards on  which  the  tiny  hands  could  learn 
to  scrawl,  rather  than  expensive  ready- 
made,  mechanical  toys  or  flimsy,  cheap  ones 


Processional  15 

that  are  destroyed  in  a  few  days.  In  our 
back  yards  or  on  our  side  porches,  we  would 
have  a  swing  or  a  climbing  ladder,  or  a 
trapeze,  or  a  sand  box,  or  a  jar  of  modeling 
clay  instead  of  formal  gardens  that  the 
child  must  not  disturb,  for  we  would  realize 
that  will-power  strengthens  and  develops 
aright  when  allowed  to  master,  transform 
and  create  with  the  materials  by  which  it 
is  surrounded.  • 

Do  we  not  all  know  guardians  of  child- 
life  who  do  not  realize  that  one  of  the  chief 
duties  of  the  guardianship  of  the  spiritual 
life  of  a  child  is  to  help  him  to  change  the 
chaos  of  sensations  which  greet  him  at  birth 
into  clear-cut,  mental  images  such,  as  life's 
problems  multiply,  will  reveal  to  his  reason- 
ing power  a. well  ordered,  law-abiding  uni- 
verse? Distinct  speech  aids  this  intel- 
lectual grasp  of  life  and  a  willing  obedience 
to  its  demands  more  than  any  other  factor. 
We  all  rebel  unless  we  have  some  compre- 
hension of  why  we  must  obey  the  laws  of 
health,  of  time,  of  home  routine,  of  com- 
munity life,  and  these  greater  laws  of  the 
growth  of  the  soul.  The  sooner  the  child 
understands  the  meaning  of  words,  the 
Booner  he  can  begin  to  understand  the  ex- 


16  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

planation  of  these  laws.    We  shall  consider 
this  important  subject  more  fully  later  on. 

As  we  consider  the  "  embryonic  impulses  " 
in  very  young  children  we  realize  more  and 
more  the  suggestive  and  picturesque  name 
"  root  fibers  of  the  soul,"  which  Froebel  has 
given  to  the  feeling,  willing  and  thinking 
powers  of  the  young  child,  faculties  which 
distinguish  him  from  the  lower  orders  of 
animal  life.  We  know  that  in  animals 
there  is  a  reaction  of  motor-nerves  to 
sensory-impressions  and  we  are  by  no  means 
sure  that  there  is  not  some  dim  foreshadow- 
ing of  the  same  in  plant  life.  Froebel,  with 
his  training  as  a  forester,  speaking  to  the 
village  peasant  mothers  about  him,  who 
were  familiar  with  the  care  of  plant  life, 
was  wise  in  calling  these  "  embryonic  im- 
pulses "  of  the  child  the  "  root  fibers  of  the 
soul."  He  thus,  by  analogy,  emphasizes 
the  spiritual  significance  of  these  early 
impulses.  I  know  of  no  other  leader  recog- 
nized in  the  pedagogical  world  who  does 
this.  I  think  it  is  the  frequent  use  of  anal- 
ogy in  interpreting  the  spiritual  life  of  man 
that  has  caused  the  kindergarten  world  to 
take  a  religious  tone,  which  Dr.  Stanley 
Hall  has  wittily  called  "  Froebelolatry." 


Processional  17 

Kindergartners  have  learned  to  discern 
the  infinite  in  the  seemingly  trivial  matter 
of  every-day  life  of  the  young  child  who  has 
not  yet  learned  to  conceal  his  emotions  and 
desires,  or  to  cover  up  the  struggle  which 
goes  on  between  the  higher  and  the  lower 
impulses.  It  is  the  same  insight  which  has 
caused  many  a  thoughtless  young  mother 
to  fall  upon  her  knees  and  pray  for  strength 
and  wisdom  to  realize  the  greatness  and 
sacredness  of  motherhood.  I  have  had 
many  and  many  a  mother  come  to  me  with 
beaming  face  and  say,  in  substance,  "  Oh !  I 
am  learning  so  much  patience  and  wisdom 
from  the  new  meaning  that  I  see  in  my 
child's  play."  A  splendidly  trained  woman 
once  said  to  me  "  My  college  training  has 
to  retire  into  the  background.  My  nursery 
with  my  two  children  in  it  is  now  giving 
me  a  university  course."  I  laughingly 
assured  her  that  the  two  courses  would  soon 
cooperate.  Almost  any  other  kindergartner 
could  tell  you  of  the  same  enthusiastic  in- 
terest aw^akened  in  the  mothers  of  her 
Mothers'  Classes.  For  the  true  meaning  of 
insight  is  that  it  sees  through  the  seen  thing 
into  the  unseen.    It  brings  the  invisible  side 


18  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

of  life  so  close  that  little  or  no  doubt  re- 
mains as  to  its  divine,  immortal  significance. 

It  seems  strange  to  me  that  with  the  recent 
widespread  and  important  interest  in  the 
physical  development  of  children  that  there 
has  been  shown  so  little  reference  to  the 
growth  of  the  spiritual  life  of  the  child,  or, 
to  use  a  pedagogical  term,  "  the  psychologi- 
cal dawn  of  his  emotional  life."  For  upon 
the  wise  understanding  of  this  depends 
much  of  his  sympathy  with  humanity,  his 
desire  for  harmony  and  his  love  of  true 
beauty  as  well  as  his  reverence  for  God. 

It  is  equally  incomprehensible  to  me  why 
the  will-power  in  the  infinitesimal  mani- 
festations of  babyhood  is  not  better  under- 
stood when  the  development  of  character 
depends  almost  entirely  upon  the  growth 
of  a  strong  will-power  which  is  ready,  never- 
theless, to  submit  to  just  laws  even  though 
they  demand  subordination  of  one's  personal 
preferences,  and  to  demand  of  one's  self  the 
performance  of  a  duty  no  matter  how  tax- 
ing it  may  be.  This,  as  we  all  know,  is  the 
essence  of  strong  personal  character. 

A  more  definite  idea  of  what  are  the 
essentials  of  education  is  much  needed.  I 
have  told  elsewhere  of  the  man  who  adver- 


Processional  19 

tlsed  that  he  had  three  daughters  to  be  edu- 
cated and  that  he  would  pay  a  thousand  dol- 
lars a  year  or  more,  if  need  be,  for  each  if 
he  could  get  the  right  kind  of  school  for 
them.  He  added  that  he  required  but  three 
things:  namely,  that  they  should  leave 
school  with  well  bodies,  with  a  conscious- 
ness of  their  own  ignorance,  and  with  a  de- 
sire to  learn.  This  sounds  very  fine  and 
up-to-date,  but  how  pitifully  inadequate  it 
is  when  we  think  of  the  many  demands  of 
life  for  which  education  should  prepare  the 
child. 

What  is  it  that  develops  the  higher  life 
of  the  individual?  What  is  it  that  suffer- 
ing humanity  most  needs  as  it  blunders 
along  from  one  mistake  to  another?  To 
bring  the  thought  closer  home,  what  are 
the  characteristics  you  and  I  love  most  in 
our  friends?  Are  they  not  the  loving,  sym- 
pathetic understanding  of  little  children 
and  the  tender  care  of  the  aged?  Is  it  not 
their  generous  and  ready  appreciation  of 
excellence  in  others?  Are  tliey  not  the 
friends  who  are  unfailing  in  their  demands 
upon  themselves  as  to  sincerity  and  loyalty 
to  duty?  How  lenient  they  are  to  our  limi- 
tations!   Yet,  in  some  subtle  way,  are  they 


20  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

not  continually  holding  us  up  to  our  best 
selves?  Are  such  friends  as  these  educated 
merely  to  care  for  their  health  and  to  have 
a  desire  for  more  intellectual  growth? 

How  the  trappings  of  mere  wealth  or 
learning  fall  away  and  the  true  worth  of  the 
individual  shines  forth  when  we  contem- 
plate such  characters !  Not  but  that  wealth, 
learning,  social  rank,  buoyant  health  and 
personal  charm  add  much  to  the  possessor's 
influence  and  for  a  while  may  attract  more 
than  the  higher,  more  sterling  virtues.  But 
in  time,  the  soul  seeks  the  true  man  or 
woman  and  history  accords  the  highest 
places  to  these  possessors  of  the  eternal 
verities. 

There  is  no  other  explanation  of  homage 
paid  by  succeeding  generations  to  Moses, 
the  leader  of  a  wandering  and  apparently 
insignificant  tribe  of  escaped  slaves;  to 
Homer,  the  blind  beggar,  journeying  about 
from  city  to  city,  in  ancient  Greece,  singing 
his  songs  of  the  ways  of  gods  and  men;  to 
the  humble  fisherman  and  the  obscure  tent- 
maker,  under  whose  teaching  proud  and 
profligate  Rome  forgot  her  glut  of  gold  and 
her  lust  for  power,  and,  as  the  centuries 
rolled  by  learned  to  seek  the  successors  of 


Processional  21 

Peter  and  the  writings  of  Paul  for  spiritual 
guidance  and  help.  Again,  we  see  the  im- 
mortal Dante,  a  poverty-stricken  exile,  re- 
jected by  his  own  city  and  despised  by  his 
contemporaries.  The  highest  Christian 
authorities  and  the  keenest  theological  intel- 
lects have  learned  to  turn  to  him  now  for 
the  marvelous  pictures  of  the  human  soul 
making  for  itself  a  Heaven  or  Hell  here  and 
now,  as  well  as  hereafter.  We  see  the  same 
recognition  of  true  worth  on  down  through 
the  ages  to  Huss  and  Wycklif,  to  Luther 
and  Savonarola,  to  Wesley  and  John  Knox 
and,  nearer  and  nearer  to  our  own  time  to 
Washington  and  Pitt,  Lincoln  and  Glad- 
stone, and  to  hundreds  of  scientists  and  doc- 
tors, to  teachers  and  preachers,  each  of 
whom  has  tried  to  help  mankind  to  know 
the  laws  of  the  eternal  God  and  to  obey 
them. 

Need  I  speak  of  the  great  Christ  Jesus, 
son  of  an  obscure  Nazarene  carpenter, 
who  in  the  brief  period  of  thirty-three  years 
so  manifested  the  meaning  of  the  divine  in 
human  life  that  he  taught  the  everlasting 
truths  concerning  God,  eternity,  and  man's 
immortality,  truths  which  caused  the  re- 
ligions and  gods  tliat  had  been  handed  down 


22  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

for  five  thousand  or  more  years,  from 
Egyptian  despots,  through  Greek  intellect- 
uals and  Eoman  empire-makers,  to  be  swept 
out  of  European  civilization  and  which, 
caused  the  Christ-life  and  Christ-teaching 
to  become  the  foundation  of  all  that  is  best 
in  what  the  world  calls  civilization?  This 
is  not  the  place  to  argue  concerning  my 
dogma  or  your  theology.  I  am  speaking 
now  of  the  influence  which  Christ  has  had 
upon  the  life  of  the  world,  whether  we  look 
upon  Him  as  incarnate  God  or  a  human 
life  that  had  the  vision  of  the  Divine  ideal. 

Does  not  the  old  orthodox  catechism  be- 
gin with  the  words :  "  The  chief  end  of  man 
is  to  glorify  God  and  enjoy  Him  forever  "? 
What  do  we  mean  by  "  to  glorify  God  "  or 
"enjoy  Him  forever"?  Right  here  is  the 
difficulty.  Here  is  where  the  mother's  most 
important  work  comes  in.  She  should  feel 
herself  to  be  God's  assistant  in  leading  her 
children  to  enjoy  Him. 

This  is  not  a  mysterious  something  that 
she  may  not  understand.  We  have  been 
given  a  well-defined  statement  of  ivhat  she 
is  to  teach  in  every  way  she  can,  by  personal 
example  and  by  gentle  suggestion.  Saint 
Paul  has  described  the  "  fruits  of  the  spirit  " 


Processional  23 

as  "  love,  peace,  joy,  long  suffering,  gentle- 
ness, goodness,  faith,  meel^ness  and  temper- 
ance." This  attitude  toward  life  brings  the 
joy  of  obeying  and  serving.  Is  not  this  the 
meaning  of  the  formal  statement  of  the  old 
catechism? 

It  is  because  we  do  not  realize  that  the 
beginning  of  all  these  love-engendering, 
peace-producing  virtues  are  in  the  nursery 
that  we  chill  young  hearts  or  warp  young 
wills  by  our  "lust  for  power."  We  dull  their 
ability  to  think  by  doing  their  thinking  for 
them;  we  neglect  to  give  them  opportunity 
to  grow  strong.  We  do  not  let  them,  when- 
ever it  is  possible,  make  their  own  choice  as 
to  what  is  right;  and  then,  when  they  have 
grown  into  manhood  and  womanhood,  we 
wonder  why  they  are  not  truer,  stronger 
men  and  women  and  why  religion  plays  no 
vital  part  in  their  lives. 


yiSITOES  FROM  THE  OUTSIDE 
WORLD 

I 

Out  of  the  warm,  dark  silence  of  his 
mother's  womb  the  child  comes  into  a  world 
of  countless  sensations  or  attacks  upon  the 
sense  organ  of  sight,  of  sound,  of  touch, 
of  taste,  of  smell.  No  wonder  that  his  first 
manifestations  in  response  to  this  new  world 
are  a  struggle  and  a  cry,  —  the  first  faint 
dawn  of  the  bodily  activity  and  of  language. 
"  But  all  animals  have  these  same  manifesta- 
tions," says  the  skeptic.  "  Yes  " ;  and  yet 
to  the  believer  in  the  divine  nature  of  man 
and  in  the  immortality  of  his  spirit  they 
mean  more.  Froebel  calls  them  "  hints 
from  Heaven  unto  the  mother  given." 

The  thoughtful  mother  can  easily  trace 
the  steady  growth  from  mere  animal  cry  to 
fretful  tones  of  impatience,  to  wrathful 
tones  of  anger,  to  pitiful  tones  of  injury, 
to  purring  tones  of  pleasure  and  cooing 
tones  of  delight,  as  her  child  develops  his 
human  nature  as  distinct  from  his  animal 

24 


Visitors  from  the  Outside  World      23 

nature.  All  these  manifestations  sliow  the 
existence  of  an  emotional  life  in  the  child 
which  is  beyond  the  mere  sensation  of  com- 
fort or  discomfort,  although  in  the  begin- 
ning they  are  closely  related  to  these  agree- 
able or  disagreeable  physical  conditions. 
It  is  this  God-given  instinct  in  the  mother 
that  makes  her  coddle  her  infant  in  a  tender 
embrace  and  speak  to  him  in  loving  tones 
and  smile  coaxingly  when  she  looks  down 
into  his  eyes  until  she  wins  an  answering 
Bmile. 

But  it  may  be  said  this  is  simply  "  mother 
instinct."  The  cow  licks  her  new-born  calf; 
the  hen  clucks  to  her  baby  chicks.  True; 
and  some  human  mothers  do  little  more.  If, 
however,  the  mere  "  mother  instinct "  is  il- 
luminated by  the  thought  of  the  divine  des- 
tiny of  man,  it  becomes  insight,  and  she  sees 
through  the  inarticulate  cry  and  restless 
tossing  of  her  infant's  limbs  the  call  for 
help  to  master  his  body  and  to  learn  to 
articulate  in  order  that  he  may  begin  to  live 
his  human  life  and  not  merely  that  of  an 
animal.  These  physical  manifestations 
common  to  all  babies  are  the  summons  to 
the  mother  to  come  and  assist  her  child  in 
creating  a  world  of  order  out  of  the  chaos 


26  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

of  sensations  awakened  by  things  around 
him  and  to  lead  him  into  human  speech  as  y 
soon  as  possible.  It  is  through  the  senses  '^ 
that  the  right  use  of  the  body  and  of  human 
language  must  rouse  the  child's  inner  life. 
There  is  nothing  great  accomplished  in  this 
world  without  faith  in  its  greatness. 

Even  if  her  mind  has  not  yet  reached  this 
clear  definite  insight  into  the  meaning  of 
true  motherhood,  let  the  mother  hold  on  to 
her  faith  that  her  child  has  an  immortal 
destiny  and  that  she  is  here  to  nurture  his 
higher  instincts  for  that  destiny. 

This  holding  of  an  ideal  or  standard  of 
life  begins  with  the  faintly  conscious  will- 
activity  of  infancy.  It  is  these  "  root  fibers 
of  the  soul,"  so  often  unnoticed,  so  seldom 
understood  and  yet  so  important  in  the 
nourishing  of  the  right  attitude  toward  life 
which  by  and  by  will  develop  genuine 
religion  in  the  heart  —  that  religion  which 
recognizes  in  its  deeds  as  well  as  in  its  emo- 
tions the  brotherhood  of  man  and  the  father- 
hood of  God.  But  it  must  begin  in  the 
heart.  It  can  begin  nowhere  else,  and  thus 
aroused,  it  must  be  allowed  sincerity  of  ex- 
pression. This  is  why  it  is  best  to  keep  the 
infant  in  a  calm,  happy  mood  in  general, 


Visitors  from  tlic  Outside  World      27 

but  to  let  him  learn  also  that  there  are  laws 
that  even  he  can  understand  and  must  obey. 

The  first  time  that  a  child  becomes  con- 
scious that  his  mother  or  any  one  whom  he 
has  trusted  has  lied  to  him,  the  seeds  of 
doubt  of  God  are  sown  in  his  soul,  and  in 
a  dim  way,  he  becomes  conscious  that  speech 
may  be  false.  This  is  long  before  he  can 
express  himself  in  words.  Have  you  not 
seen  some  adult  tell  an  untruth  to  a  young 
child,  and  then  noticed  how  quickly  he  turns 
his  questioning  eyes  to  his  mother's  face? 

I  was  present  one  day  when  a  young 
mother  was  feeding  candy  to  her  baby.  I 
modestly  remonstrated  on  the  amount  she 
was  giving  him.  She  hid  it  behind  her  on 
the  chair  in  which  she  was  sitting.  The 
child  reached  out  for  more.  The  mother 
said,  "All  gone.  The  candy  is  all  gone." 
The  child,  who  could  not  yet  talk,  demanded 
by  gesture  that  he  wanted  more  of  the  sweet 
sensation.  The  mother  held  up  her  hands, 
shook  her  dress  and  continued  to  say  "All 
gone."  In  the  meantime,  she  motioned  to 
her  husband  to  put  the  box  farther  away. 
The  child,  not  yet  a  year  old,  evidently  sus- 
pected something.  He  sat  up  on  the  bed, 
reached  over  and,  catching  her  arm,  began 


28  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

searching  her  blouse  and  skirt.  If  a  child 
cannot  trust  those  who  are  nearest  to  him, 
how  hard  it  will  be  to  lead  him  to  trust  an 
all-wise,  all-loving,  all-truthful  but  invisible 
God! 

This  is  not  the  place  in  which  to  discuss 
lying  to  children  or  deceiving  them  in  any 
way.  It  is  too  large  a  subject  for  discus- 
sion here.  The  above  is  given  to  show  how 
important  it  is  that  all  sense-impressions 
should  be  as  clear  and  definite  as  possible, 
as  these  lead  to  distinct  mental  images. 

II 

Accurate  mental  images  are  formed 
through  the  right  exercise  of  the  senses; 
even  the  very  young  child  begins  to  note 
form,  color,  motion  and  the  various  other 
properties  of  objects  about  him.  This  is 
easily  proved  by  the  baby's  trying  to  stop 
a  moving  object  and  trying  to  move  an 
object  at  rest,  by  reaching  out  for  a  red 
or  yellow  or  other  gaily  colored  ball  and 
ignoring  the  blue  and  purple  ones.  Of 
course,  the  time  of  the  baby's  beginning  to 
connect  the  pleasant  or  unpleasant  sensa- 
tions with  the  objects  varies  with  different 


[Visitors  from  the  Outside  World      29 

children,  but  it  comes  much  earlier  than 
most  people  are  aware. 

The  child  begins  as  the  race  began,  first 
by  accidental  discovery  of  the  properties 
of  matter,  which  leads  gradually  to  learn- 
ing the  laws  by  which  he  can  use  materials 
about  him ;  from  these  he  creates  new  forms 
and  finds  new  ways  of  utilizing  nature's 
forces.  Man  accidentally  discovered  how 
glass  could  be  made  of  melted  sand;  later 
he  learned  to  shape  the  glass  into  telescopes 
and  microscopes.  These  reveal  the  incon- 
ceivable magnitude  of  the  starry  heavens 
and  the  undreamed-of  conformity  to  geo- 
graphical shapes  found  in  the  microscopic 
atoms  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  Merely  to 
mention  what  changes  physics,  mechanics, 
chemistry,  and  a  score  of  other  scientific 
studies  have  made  in  the  life  of  man,  even 
in  our  lifetime,  would  take  us  too  far  afield 
for  the  purpose  of  this  book. 

The  important  point,  just  now,  is  how 
easily  the  child  through  his  creative  work 
may  begin  to  distinguish  between  himself 
as  a  feeling,  willing,  thinking  being  and 
the  unresting  waves  of  the  sea,  the  immov- 
able rocks  of  the  shore,  the  silent  plants 
and  trees  of  the  hillside,  the  inarticulate 


30  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

beasts  of  the  field  and  the  fowls  of  the  air, 
which  in  thousands  and  thousands  of  years 
have  not  changed  voluntarily  their  habits 
of  life  or  the  kinds  of  homes  in  which  they 
live,  while  the  child  may  change  his  activi- 
ties a  dozen  times  within  an  hour  if  he  so 
wills. 

We  shall  speak  more  fully  of  what  con- 
nection this  has  with  the  religious  life  when 
we  come  to  "  creative  play  "  in  our  study 
of  the  value  of  understanding  the  deeper 
meaning  of  play.  Just  now,  I  wish  to  call 
attention  to  the  way  a  mother  helps  or  hin- 
ders the  process  which  is  going  on  within 
her  child,  by  means  of  which,  having  seen 
the  objects  often  enough,  he  learns  to  recog- 
nize, i.  e.,  to  have  a  mental  image  of  objects 
and  to  note  resemblances  and  then  to  dis- 
guish  differences  between  these  familiar  or 
unfamiliar  objects.  This  is  as  near  as  we 
have,  as  yet,  traced  the  awakening  of  that 
spiritual  process  through  which  man  selects 
the  materials  he  wishes  to  use  and  rejects 
those  that  will  not  help  him  give  form  to  the 
impressions  within  him  that  are  urging  to 
be  uttered  or  "  outered." 

Have  you  not  had  some  idea  come  into 
your  conscious  mind  that  left  you  eager  and 


Visitors  from  the  Outside  World      31 

impatient  until  you  could  communicate  it 
to  your  most  congenial  friend?  It  is  the 
same  impulse  that  causes  baby's  delight  in 
holding  up  some  toy  for  his  mother  to  ex- 
press surprise  or  pleasure  concerning  it. 
Why  does  he  at  less  than  a  year  of  age  wave 
his  hand  "  by-by  "  with  pleasure,  or  play 
"  pat-a-cake "  when  his  mother  begins  to 
sing  it,  unless  he  is  beginning  to  feel  the 
delight  of  communicating,  even  when  he 
does  not  understand  the  full  meaning  of 
these  simple  gestures? 

The  father's  or  mother's  part  is  to  mani- 
fest pleasure  at  this  uttering  of  the  inner 
self,  which  sensations  have  awakened,  and 
to  add  new  sensations  that  will  enrich  this 
inner  world  of  his,  not  too  many  and  not 
too  complex  sensations,  but  enough  to  keep 
that  dim  dawning  mind  active  and  at  work 
taking  in  and  giving  out,  with  quiet  periods 
of  rest  between  times. 

There  are  many  means  by  which  a  baby 
may  begin  to  compare  sensations.  The 
child  less  than  two  years  of  age  would  do 
much  more  of  it  if  he  were  not  thoughtlessly 
checked  by  his  mother  or  nurse.  Let  me 
illustrate  an  instance  of  this  self-education 
by  means  of  which  the  child  carries  forward 


32  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

this  inner  power  of  contrasting  and  judging 
the  world  about  him. 

One  day,  I  chanced  to  be  seated  in  a 
suburban  train  opposite  two  young  women 
who  were  evidently  much  occupied  by  their 
conversation.  Between  them  stood  a  little 
girl  about  fourteen  or  fifteen  months  of  age, 
looking  out  of  the  window.  In  a  short  time, 
she  turned  and  gazed,  in  child  fashion,  at 
her  mother's  friend;  then  she  reached  out 
her  little  hand  and  softly  caressed  the  seal- 
skin of  the  lady's  coat.  The  sensation  evi- 
dently pleased  her  and  she  repeated  it 
several  times,  stroking  the  velvet-like  fur. 
Her  mother  drew  the  little  girl's  hand  away 
rather  impatiently  and  said :  "  Don't  do 
that.  It  isn't  nice."  The  temptation,  how- 
ever, to  repeat  this  new  and  delightful  sen- 
sation of  touch  was  too  much  for  the  child 
and  in  a  few  moments  her  hand  w^as  travel- 
ing slowly  and  caressingly  over  the  sleeve 
of  the  sealskin  coat.  Again  the  mother 
pulled  the  hand  down  to  her  side  and  went 
on  talking  to  her  friend,  still  holding  the 
little  one's  hand.  As  her  own  grasp  re- 
laxed, the  child  again  reached  out  and  felt 
of  the  soft,  pretty  fur.  It  was  done  so 
quietly  and  gently,  with  such  a  pleased  ex- 


Yisitors  from  the  Outside  World      33 

pression  of  the  face,  that  it  seemed  to  me 
that  anyone  ought  to  have  understood  the 
situation, —  but  in  polite  society  it  is  not 
considered  proper,  I  realized,  for  a  child  to 
indulge  the  sense  of  touch  by  actual  expe- 
rience. Therefore,  to  the  mother  it  evi- 
dently became  a  duty  to  take  the  child's 
hand  away  from  the  attractive  fur.  This 
time  somewhat  emphatically,  with  a  rather 
sharp  word  of  rebuke  at  the  "  naughtiness  " 
of  disobedience  she  slapped  the  child's  hand. 
For  a  short  time,  the  little  one,  w^hose  con- 
sciousness of  a  pleasing  touch-sensation  had 
been  awakened,  ran  her  fingers  back  and 
forth  over  the  woven  willow  of  the  seat- 
back,  then  it  returned  to  the  warm,  soft  fur 
of  the  lady's  coat.  Again  the  mother 
slapped  the  disobedient  hand  quite  severely. 
The  child's  face  instantly  showed  resent- 
ment at  what,  to  her,  w^as  an  unjust  and 
unnecessary  pain  inflicted  upon  her,  and 
she  raised  her  hand  to  strike  back  at  her 
mother.  Accidentally,  it  touched  the  plush 
of  her  own  little  bonnet,  and  instantly  the 
wounded  feelings  vanished  and  an  expres- 
sion of  intense  astonishment  and  awakened 
interest  appeared  in  the  child's  face.  She 
eagerly  smoothed  down  the  soft,  silk  plush 


34  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

for  a  moment  or  two  and  then  by  way  of 
.verifying  this  wonderful  new  discovery  that 
two  sensations  in  different  localities  could 
be  the  same,  she  was  impelled  to  identify  it 
W'ith  the  former  experience.  She  did  the  most 
normal  and  natural  thing  possible;  she 
reached  out  and  felt  the  fur.  Her  expres- 
sion and  manner  were  those  of  an  inves- 
tigator with  no  thought  whatever  of  dis- 
obedience. 

The  mother,  however,  did  not  see  it  from 
the  child's  standpoint.  To  her  the  child 
seemed  troublesome  and  was  annoying  her 
friend.  She  took  her  down  from  the  seat 
and  placed  her  on  the  other  side  of  her,  at 
the  same  time  reproaching  her  by  the  use 
of  several  unpleasant  adjectives.  The  child 
at  first  looked  perplexed,  then  sulky  and 
finally  moved  away  from  her  mother  as  far 
as  the  space  would  allow.  She  had  been 
investigating  an  amazing,  interesting,  new 
world  and  her  mental  powers  had  received 
the  stimulation  of  suddenly  recognizing 
identical  sense-impressions  of  soft  furriness 
in  different  localities,  and  by  means  of 
different  material.  It  was  a  real  discovery 
in  the  outside  world  and  this  revelation  was 
followed  by  an  intense  desire  to  verify  thor- 


Visitors  from  the  Outside  World      35 

ouglily  the  discovery;  but  the  mother  saw 
none  of  this  and  went  on  talking  with  her 
friend  about  some  trivial  matter.  It  was 
but  one  illustration  of  the  thousand  mis- 
takes and  obstacles  that  daily  hinder  the 
young  child's  growth, — in  acuteness  of 
sense-perception  and  in  development  of 
mental  images  of  judgment  and  of  power  to 
discriminate. 

This  would  mean  much  in  some  line  of 
work  or  of  pleasure  in  after  life.  Mission- 
aries tell  us  all  primitive  tribes  of  people 
are  in  the  habit  of  examining  the  clothes  of 
visitors,  handling  them  and  asking  ques- 
tions about  them.  It  is  their  instinctive 
child-way  of  investigating  the  new  phe- 
nomena by  touch  as  well  as  by  sight.  I  do 
not  mean  by  this,  that  children  should 
ordinarily  be  allowed  to  annoy  guests  in 
this  way,  but  I  do  mean  to  urge  that  the 
"  touch  hunger  "  should  be  taken  more  into 
consideration  in  a  child's  early  experiences. 

May  we  not  stop  here  to  explain  a  little 
more  fully  that  it  is  the  poicer  to  contrast 
and  compare  things  rather  than  the  recog- 
nition of  objects  which  is  educationally  im- 
portant, although  the  recognition  of  the 
object  must  necessarily  come  first? 


36  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

One  valuable  contribution  whicb  Dr, 
Montessori  has  made  to  education  lias  been 
her  insistence  upon  the  importance  of  chil- 
dren being  allowed  to  handle  objects.  She 
shows  that  the  sense  of  touch  is  the  sense 
which  is  developed  first  in  the  infant  and  is 
the  most  important  sense  to  be  developed 
throughout  early  childhood,  and  yet,  that  it 
is  the  one  which  is  oftenest  forbidden  for 
the  sake  of  the  convenience  of  grown  people. 
In  one  of  her  lectures,  she  significantly  re- 
marked that  if  seeing  and  hearing  were  as 
troublesome  to  the  average  adults  as  is  the 
touching  of  objects  by  children  we  would 
undoubtedly  hear  parents  and  teachers  say : 
"Don't  see  that!  Don't  hear  that!"  as 
often  as  they  say :  "  Don't  touch  that !  " 
This  emphasis  upon  the  training  of  the 
sense  of  touch  is  one  of  the  very  strong 
points,  pedagogically  considered,  in  her 
method.  Our  own  Dr.  Dewey  long  ago 
pleaded  eloquently  for  the  satisfying  of  this 
"  touch-hunger  "  of  children.  Froebel  had 
called  our  attention  to  the  fact  that  young 
children  run  their  fingers  around  the  edge 
of  the  table  or  book  thus  by  touch  to  help 
get  the  shape  of  objects  more  clearly  fixed 
in  their  minds. 


yisitors  from  the  Outside  World      37 

However,  neither  of  these  had  at  the  time 
discovered  the  tools  which  Dr.  Montessorl 
afterwards  found  Dr.  Seguin  had  used  so 
well  in  the  arousing  and  quickening  of  the 
minds  of  defective  children,  and  which  she 
refined,  completed  and  reorganized  for  use 
in  her  Children's  Houses  in  Rome.  The 
phenomenal  success,  in  the  almost  miracu- 
lous rapidity  with  which  these  children 
learned  to  write  after  feeling  the  outline  of 
Vlthe  two-inch  long  cardboard  letters,  proved 
conclusively  how  much  the  sense  of  touch 
aids  the  sense  of  sight  in  building  up 
mental  images.  There  are  many  games 
which  may  be  created  for  the  exercise  of 
this  sense  and  for  the  other  senses  also. 
The  child  learns  through  the  direction  from 
which  a  sound  comes  to  distinguish  one 
sound  from  another  and  often  one  voice 
from  another. 

The  winter  that  I  was  studying  in  Rome, 
Dr.  Montessori  had  a  set  of  bells,  or  rather 
gongs,  fastened  to  a  low  table.  When 
struck  by  a  small  hammer,  they  gave  forth 
the  sounds  of  the  scale  of  C.  First  one 
and  then  another  of  the  children  frequently 
created  little  melodies  by  rhythmically  com- 
bining  three   or    four    notes.      Thus   they; 

49  351 


38  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

learned  to  listen  for  melodies  when  the 
directress  played  on  the  piano.  Even  more 
and  greater  varieties  of  plays  are  created  by 
a  child's  being  allowed  to  see  more  than  one 
object  for  a  moment  and  then  to  let  him  try 
to  name  each  object.  If  such  exercises  are 
carried  on  in  the  true  spirit  of  the  play, 
they  are  good  for  the  nursery  as  well  as  for 
the  kindergarten  and  elementary  grades, 
provided,  of  course,  that  the  nursery  games 
are  simpler  and  have  fewer  objects.  Psy- 
chologically speaking  this  is  playing  with 
mental  images  of  former  sense-impressions. 

Have  you  not  met  people  with  such  acute 
powers  of  observation  that  they  could  take 
a  street  car  ride  down  a  familiar  street  and 
on  returning,  recall  their  experiences  so 
vividly  as  to  hold  the  most  jaded  attention 
of  indifferent  listeners?  Joyce  Kilmer,  in 
that  charming  book  "  The  Circus  and  Other 
Essays,"  has  a  sketch  entitled  "  Noon-hour 
Adventuring,"  which  tells  what  James 
Jones,  a  country  boy  with  awakened  senses 
and  quickened  imagination,  saw  during  his 
noon  hours  when  free  fifty  minutes  from  the 
task  by  which  he  earned  his  living. 

Does  not  a  part  of  the  enjoyment  of  for- 
eign travel  consist  of  gaining  fresli  sensa- 


/ 


yisitors  from  the  Outside  World      30 

tions  by  comparing  foreign  scenery  and 
customs  with  our  own? 

Again,  mucli  of  tlie  difference  between 
skilled  and  unskilled  workmen  in  any  line 
of  work  is  largely  due  to  the  sense-percep- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  skilled  worker  and 
the  haziness  of  the  sense-impression  of  the 
unskilled  worker.  The  slightest  flaw  is  de- 
tected by  the  trained  sense  of  touch  of  the 
sculptor.  Rodin,  the  famous  French  artist, 
claimed  that  his  power  to  give  the  wonder- 
ful, lifelike  effect  to  his  marble  came  from 
his  having  discovered  the  almost  impercep- 
tible irregularities  of  surface  which  the 
Greeks  gave  to  their  statues  of  the  gods. 
Michael  Angelo  before  him  had  made  use 
of  the  same  discovery.  The  story  is  told  of 
Theodore  Thomas  that  in  the  middle  of  a 
rehearsal  he  rapped  his  orchestra  into 
silence  and  then  said  in  a  tone  of  annoy- 
ance :  "  The  third  string  of  the  seventeenth 
violin  is  out  of  tune."  On  examining  his 
violin.  Number  17  found  that  the  third 
string  of  his  instrument  was  not  in  the 
right  condition.  Similar  stories  are  told  of 
great  painters  and  of  famous  scientists. 

After  this  frank  acknowledgment  of  the 
importance  of  training  a  child  in  sense-per- 


40  Uiiseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

ception,  I  hope  I  shall  not  be  misunderstood 
when  I  say  that  to  restrict  even  a  young 
child's  play  to  mere  exercise  of  the  body 
and  of  the  senses  is  to  check  his  spiritual 
growth  and  leave  him  in  the  enjoyment  of 
mere  sensations  that  early  lead  to  the  life 
of  a  sensualist  or  lead  to  a  dull,  prosaic 
compiler  of  dull,  prosaic  facts.  Fortu- 
nately, a  child's  inner  self  insists  upon  the 
right  to  be  developed  and  bursts  forth  in 
some  form  of  imagination.  It  is  not  always 
realized  by  mature  minds  that  the  imagina- 
tion, rightly  understood,  is  simply  the  Ego 
or  inner-self  changing  and  transforming  the 
images  brought  to  it  by  the  senses,  so  that 
these  images  can  express  the  world  of 
dreams  and  fancies  which  exist  within  the 
child ;  and  that  out  of  the  rightly  developed 
imagination  grow  the  men  of  creative  vision 
who  lead  their  generation  in  the  great  "  yet- 
to-be's  "  which  the  mass  of  men  do  not  be- 
lieve possible  because  not  yet  proved  by  the 
senses. 

James  J.  Hill,  the  creator  of  the  North- 
ern Pacific  Railroad,  when  he  was  trying  to 
persuade  moneyed  men  to  help  him  build 
the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  realized  the 
difference  between  the  man  with  creative 


Visitors  from  the  Outside  World      41 

imagination  and  the  man  lacking  in  imag- 
ination. He  found  that  the  one  saw  pros- 
perous farms,  growing  towns  and  crowded 
cities  where  the  other  saw  only  stretches  of 
untilled  prairies,  muddy  swamps  and  moun- 
tain passes. 

During  the  past  decade,  domestic  science 
has  slowly  and  cautiously  crept  into  the 
best  high  schools,  at  first  as  an  optional 
study  for  girl  pupils.  But  the  appalling 
ignorance  of  relative  values  of  foods  which 
the  late  war  has  revealed  shows  how  limited 
has  been  the  influence  of  this  valuable 
course  of  study. 

When  the  far-seeing  imagination  of  Her- 
bert Hoover  showed  what  could  be  accom- 
plished by  saving  on  the  part  of  each 
American  of  one  slice  of  bread  per  day  it 
became  the  clarion  call  to  our  nation  to 
arise  and  shake  off  the  sloth  and  feed  the 
starving  millions  who  were  fighting  to  save 
the  world's  ideals.  How  unprepared  we 
were  to  give  up  our  surplus  sweets  and 
wheats  and  meats!  Why?  Was  it  not  that 
the  right  guidance  of  our  appetites  had  not 
been  made  in  childhood?  Long  before 
adult  life,  an  interest  in  the  true  purpose 
of  food  should  have  been  established.     We 


42  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

know  now  liow  much  health  and  how  much 
money  have  been  wasted  on  unneeded  feed- 
ing. And  it  is  so  easily  done  in  the  early, 
oftentimes,  untended  years  of  the  child.  In 
many  homes,  it  has  been  considered  an  in- 
significant thing  as  to  just  how  a  child  is 
fed.  Thanks  to  the  National  Child  Wei- 
fare  Movement,  this  great  blunder  is  being 
remedied,  but  we  still  have  many,  many 
families  where  condiments  and  stimulants 
are  recklessly  given  to  children,  with  the 
mistaken  idea  of  thus  being  kindly  indul- 
gent to  them,  and  in  so  many  other  homes 
children's  capricious  preferences  for  this 
or  that  article  of  food  are  humored. 

Let  me  give  you  an  illustration  of  how 
easy  it  is  to  appeal  to  the  rational  element 
of  a  child,  even  when  he  is  too  young  to  be 
reasoned  with.  I  w^as  dining  one  evening 
with  some  friends  whose  little  four-year-old 
son  pushed  away  the  plate  of  meat  which 
had  been  carefully  cut  up  for  him,  saying 
in  a  fretful  tone :  "  No,  I  don't  want  any 
meat."  "  Oh,  Freddie,"  urged  his  mother 
coaxingly,  "  please  eat  the  meat.  Don't 
jou  know  the  doctor  said  he  wanted  you 
to  eat  more  meat?  "  "  I  don't  care.  I  don't 
like  meat,  and  I  won't  eat  it,"  was  the  re- 


yisitors  from  the  Outside  World      43 

sponse.  "  Come,  now,  Freddie,"  said  the 
father,  "  you  eat  that  meat  and  I'll  give  you 
a  nickel."  "  I  don't  want  your  nickel,"  re- 
plied the  boy,  pushing  the  plate  a  little  far- 
ther away.  Again  the  mother  coaxed,  and 
again  the  father  bribed,  but  evidently  the 
boy  had  had  his  own  way  and  did  not  pro- 
pose yielding  the  point,  so  I  concluded  I 
would  take  a  hand  in  the  matter.  "  Fred," 
I  said,  "do  you  know  what  that  little  stomach 
of  yours,  away  down  inside  of  you,  will 
do,  if  you  chew  up  a  piece  of  that  meat 
and  swallow  it?  "  His  curiosity  was  aw^ak- 
ened  and  he  replied:  "  No,  what?  "  "  Well, 
if  that  little  stomach  could  talk,  it  would 
say :  '  M-m-m,  this  is  fine !  That  boy  has 
sent  me  down  some  nice  beefsteak,  now  I 
can  make  good  bone  and  muscle  out  of  this, 
which  will  help  him  to  run  faster.'  Then 
if  you  should  take  another  piece  of  steak 
and  chew  it  up  well  and  swallow  it,  the 
stomach  would  say :  '  M-m-m,  here's  some 
more  of  that  nice  beefsteak.  Now  I  can 
make  this  boy's  muscles  strong,  so  that  he 
can  climb  and  jump.'  Then,  if  you  sent 
down  another  piece  of  steak,  all  chewed  up, 
it  would  say :  '  Well,  well,  well,  now,  I 
can   get  this  little  fellow  so  he  can  run 


44  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

very  fast,  and  can  soon  climb  a  tree.' "  By 
this  time  the  child  had  pulled  the  plate  to 
him,  and  had  begun  eating  his  steak.  A 
bit  more  of  such  humorous  nonsense,  and 
the  entire  amount  of  meat  had  been  con- 
sumed with  great  glee  by  the  boy.  It  was 
merely  a  device,  of  course,  but  it  gave  him  a 
purpose  which  had  not  been  presented  be- 
fore for  eating  the  meat.  He  was  not 
mature  enough  to  understand  the  transfor- 
mation of  food  into  bone  and  muscle,  but 
the  dramatic  presentation  of  this  same 
thought  caught  his  imagination. 

At  the  risk  of  fatiguing  you,  I  want  to 
give  you  one  more  illustration  of  hindrance 
of  the  right  development  of  children  which 
comes  from  encouraging  them  to  indulge 
their  appetites.  I  was  in  one  of  our  lovely 
parks  one  afternoon  just  at  sunset  time. 
On  a  bench  near  me,  sat  a  young  mother, 
reading  a  book.  Playing  about  on  the  grass 
near  her,  was  her  little  three-year-old  son. 
In  a  few  moments,  the  sunset  clouds  had 
changed  into  a  marvel  of  gold  and  crimson 
and  purple  which  flooded  the  landscape 
with  its  own  glory.  The  child  looked  up  in 
wonder  and  evident  admiration.  "  Look, 
Mom !  Look ! "  he  cried,  running  to  her  and 


[Visitors  from  the  Outside  World     45 

pointing  to  the  sunset  clouds.  She  did  not 
lift  her  eyes  from  her  book  but  answered, 
"  Yes,  yes,  run  away  and  play  now."  But 
the  child,  longing  for  sympathy  in  this  new 
vision  of  beauty  which  had  so  suddenly  ap- 
peared, again  pulled  at  her  dress  and  said : 
"  Look,  look  up  at-the  sky."  "  Run  away  and 
play,  dear,  mother  is  reading,"  came  again 
the  response.  A  third  time,  the  little  boy 
made  his  appeal.  The  mother  then,  in  an 
absent-minded  way,  laid  her  book  down, 
picked  up  a  paper  bag  which  was  in  her  lap, 
took  from  it  a  large  cream  chocolate  and 
stuffed  it  into  the  boy's  mouth,  saying: 
"  There,  there,  now,  dear,  don't  bother 
Momie  any  more." 

A  great  educational  opportunity  to  in- 
crease her  child's  love  of  beauty  and  to 
share  with  him  this  wonderful  experience 
of  a  glorious  sunset  was  hers.  Instead  of 
embracing  it,  she  substituted  an  opportu- 
nity to  encourage  his  appetite  for  sweets 
between  meals.  More  than  this,  she  was 
helping  him  to  form  the  habit  of  self-indul- 
gence which  is  created  by  an  undue  catering 
to  the  taste  for  sweets.  And  yet,  I  doubt 
not  that  this  mother  would  have  been  as- 
tounded had  I  asked  her  if  she  considered 


46  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

the  book  she  was  reading  more  important 
than  the  aesthetic  and  moral  education  of 
her  child. 

Even  more  than  this,  she  was  losing  a 
"  psychic  moment "  when  the  little  one's 
emotions  were  deeply  stirred  by  the  splen- 
dor of  the  pageant  of  the  skies.  She  could 
have  entered  into  his  feeling  of  mystery  and 
reverence  which  the  indescribable  beauty  of 
the  moment  had  awakened.  She  could  have 
taken  him  upon  her  lap  and  told  him  in  a 
few,  simple  words  the  story  of  a  shepherd 
lad,  in  a  land  where  it  was  warm  enough  to 
live  out  of  doors ;  how  he  learned  to  love  the 
wonderful  sunsets  so  much  that  when  he 
was  grown  he  wrote  a  beautiful  poem  about 
the  heavens  declaring  the  glory  of  God. 
Then  she  might  have  added :  "  For  you 
know,  my  son,  that  no  man  on  earth  could 
create  one,  single  sunset,  no  matter  how 
rich  or  how  great  he  might  be,"  or  some 
such  suggestion  that  would  have  helped  him 
to  begin  to  connect  the  sublime  in  nature 
with  the  emotion  of  reverence  which  is  the 
foundation  of  true  religion  as  well  as  the 
check  to  mere  superstition. 

A  great  musician  has  said  "  Music  begins 
where  language  ceases."    Kather  let  us  say 


Visitors  from  the  Outside  World      47 

that  music  may  appeal  to  a  child's  emo- 
tions, may  begin  long  before  language  is  at- 
tained, for  the  earliest  cradles  of  the  race 
were  rocked  in  rhyme  to  sleep.  Though 
modern  science  now  forbids  the  "  rocking  " 
the  rhyme  may  still  continue. 

I  had  an  intimate  friend  who  possessed  a 
remarkably  musical  voice.  So  fond  of 
music  was  she  that  unconsciously  she  would 
hum  some  simple  melody  to  her  baby  when 
the  child's  sleeping  time  came.  Before  the 
little  one  was  three  months  old  her  face 
would  wear  a  pleased  expression  when  her 
mother  would  hum  one  simple  tune.  This 
caused  the  mother  to  repeat  this  particular 
melody.  Within  a  few  months  the  child 
began  to  hum  in  tune  with  the  mother. 
Before  she  was  a  year  old  she  could  hum 
three  different  tunes.  The  mother  would 
begin  the  first  bar  of  the  music  and  the 
child  would  continue  the  melody  alone. 

The  daughter  is  now  sixteen  years  old, 
and  is  in  no  way  a  musical  genius.  But 
music  is  one  of  the  joys  of  her  life  and  she 
plays  with  much  feeling. 

Dr.  W.  C.  Bagley  has  defined  a  cultured/ 
person  as  one  who  sees  through  the  deeper 
meaning  of  the  common  things  of  life.    In 


48  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

order  to  attain  unto  this  insight  one  must 
have  learned  the  relative  values  of  activi- 
ties. Valuable  as  may  be  this  or  that 
method  of  teaching,  or  of  home  training, 
one  must  always  keep  the  end  to  be  attained 
in  sight.  All  methods  and  devices  are  but 
means  to  an  end  and  necessarily  must  vary 
with  different  children.  This  is  one  reason 
why  all  teachers  should  have  some  knowl- 
edge of  and  love  for  the  great  poets,  musi- 
cians and  other  artists  of  the  world  as  well 
as  methods.  Even  "  projects  and  plans  " 
may  be  overdone. 

A  good  illustration  of  this  is  shown  by 
the  use  of  the  piano,  not  only  to  train  the 
child's  voice  in  singing,  but  as  a  means  of 
impressing  him  pleasantly  and  imperson- 
ally with  the  presence  of  what  Froebel  calls 
"  the  invisible  third,"  which  means  simply 
this :  that  in  every  life  there  should  come  a 
comprehension  of  an  impartial,  impersonal 
law  of  right  which  commands  obedience 
regardless  of  your  or  my  individual  incli- 
nations. 

In  the  school  room  the  piano  can  com- 
mand silence  on  the  part  of  the  teacher  as 
well  as  of  the  children,  or  can  command 
cessation  of  work,  the  beginning  of  marches 


Visitors  from  the  Outside  World      49 

and  the  ending  of  the  same,  fast  and  slow 
time,  etc.  When  children  are  marching, 
skipping,  or  otherwise  expressing  them- 
selves they  instinctively  obey  the  piano. 
This  may  seem  a  trifling  device  or  it  may  be 
so  used  as  to  be  the  harsh  arbitrary  com- 
mand of  the  teacher,  but  if  she  has  the  right 
insight  as  Dr.  Bagley  defines  it,  she  can 
so  use  the  piano  as  to  have  it  teach  the 
children  to  obey  law  promptly  and  gladly, 
as  well  as  to  love  good  music. 

A  friend  of  mine  gave  me  an  amusing  ac- 
count of  her  little  four-year-old  boy,  who 
was  playing  kindergarten  by  himself  at 
home  one  afternoon.  He  had  been  at  work 
with  some  blocks  on  his  play  table.  He  sud- 
denly arose,  walked  to  the  piano  and  softly 
touched  one  or  two  of  the  keys.  Then  came 
back,  sat  down  in  his  chair  and  folded  his 
arms,  as  was  the  custom  in  the  kinder- 
garten that  he  attended.  He  sat  perfectly 
quiet  for  a  minute  or  two,  then  rising,  he 
walked  again  to  the  piano,  struck  another 
chord,  then  came  back  to  his  seat  and  began 
putting  away  his  work.  He  had  learned  to 
obey  "  the  voice  of  the  piano  "  in  the  kin- 
dergarten and  part  of  his  reproduction  of 
his  morning's  experience  was  his  delight  in 


50  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

this  prompt  obedience  to  its  impersonal 
command.  I  frankly  acknowledge  that  this 
is  a  somewhat  arbitrary  use  of  the  piano. 
It,  nevertheless,  is  a  very  effectual  instru- 
ment for  commanding  obedience,  if  the 
teacher  herself  has  suffiicent  power  of  im- 
agination to  separate  herself  from  it  in  the 
minds  of  the  children.  But  the  piano  does 
much  more  than  this.  It  can  be  the  means 
of  stirring  the  emotions,  or  of  quieting  rest- 
less discontent;  or,  deep  joy  and  profound 
reverence  may  be  awakened  by  it. 

Unless  we  except  the  tones  of  the  well- 
trained  voice,  there  is  no  other  means  which 
can  so  arouse  the  full  gamut  of  human  emo- 
tions as  does  music.  In  fact,  music  goes  far 
beyond  words.  Our  military  bands  prove 
this  and  so  do  our  church  organs,  not  to 
mention  the  effect  of  the  sweetness  of  a 
violin  solo  or  of  a  piano  when  played  well 
with  a  sympathetic  touch. 

In  one  of  the  many  admirable  articles 
concerning  the  training  of  little  children, 
sent  out  by  the  National  Kindergarten  As- 
sociation, Mrs.  Jean  Barrett,  a  mother  who 
has  had  the  kindergarten  training,  gives  the 
following  examples  of  how   music  in  the 


Visitors  from  the  Outside  World      51 

home  sweetens   the   mood,   lightens   labor, 
and  works  off  unhealthy  emotions. 

"A  little  girl  who  was  very  miserable 
and  managed  to  make  mother  or  nurse  most 
unhappy  all  through  the  process  of  hair- 
dressing  and  getting  into  bothersome 
clothes,  would  submit  most  graciously  if 
mother  sang 

'My  mother  bids  me  bind  my  hair. 
With  knot  of  fairest  hue; 
Tie  up  my  sleeves  with  ribbon  rare, 

And.  lace  my  bodiice  blue. 
For,  why,  she  says,  sit  still  and  weep 
While  others  are  at  play?' 

an  adaptation  of  Hayden's  beautiful  air." 

She  tells  how  another  mother  learned  to 
help  her  little  boy  work  off  some  of  his 
stormy  fits  of  temper  by  going  to  the  piano 
and  playing  some  stormy,  impetuous  bit, 
like  Schumann's  "  Wild  Rider."  The  boy 
did  not  know  why  this  was  done,  but  he  felt 
the  mood  of  the  music  because  it  exactly 
fitted  his  own,  and  he  would  career  around 
the  room  like  a  veritable  wild  pony,  until 
his  emotion,  which  might  have  worked  in- 
jury to  himself  and  others,  had  spent  itself 
in  this  harmless  way.  She  then  adds  these 
two  interesting  stories : 
"  My  sister  remembers  that  even  as  a  child 


52  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

she  recognized  tliis  power  of  music  to  bring 
sweetness  out  of  temper.  She  was  very- 
angry  one  day  with  a  sense  of  some  injustice 
done  to  her  and  in  this  mood  started  to  play 
her  beloved  piano.  As  she  did  this,  she 
realized  that  if  she  played  she  would  soon 
cease  to  be  angry  and  not  being  ready  to 
give  up  her  resentful  mood,  she  rejected  the 
gentle  ministry  of  music  and  went  to  her 
room  to  nurse  her  unhappiness. 

"As  an  incitement  to  bravery,  music  has 
often  been  used  in  the  home.  A  little  boy 
much  afraid  of  the  dark  would  go  upstairs 
to  a  dark  room  for  mother  when  she  played 
a  strong  march  for  him  as  he  went." 

While  the  kindergartner's  opportunity 
comes  later  than  that  of  the  mother,  she 
has  the  same  responsibility  to  see  that  the 
children  under  her  care  are  given  the  oppor- 
tunity for  "  full  and  all-sided  development  " 
to  enable  them  to  understand  and  appreci- 
ate the  products  of  true  art.  Many  children 
will  come  to  her  without  having  experienced 
in  the  home  any  of  the  delight  in  music 
which  might  have  been  theirs,  and  to  her 
will  fall  the  duty  of  awakening  the  first 
loving  emotion  for  sweet  sounds. 

Who  that  has  ever  witnessed  the  happi- 


Visitors  from  the  Outside  World      53 

ness  of  little  children  in  the  poorer,  less  con- 
ventional districts  of  a  large  city  when  they 
hear  a  street  hand  organ  can  doubt  that 
music  should  be  regarded  as  a  beneficent 
influence  in  life  and  not  as  an  accomplish- 
ment to  be  cultivated  only  by  those  of  more 
than  ordinary  endowment?  When  the  kin- 
dergartner  says :  "  Who  will  sing  our  new 
song  for  us  alone?  "  how  often  it  is  that  the 
little  fellow  who  cannot  yet  carry  a  tune 
eagerly  responds,  especially  if  mother  is 
there  to  hear?  If  teacher  and  mother  are 
wise,  there  will  be  no  expression  of  surprise 
or  dissent;  for  the  correctness  or  lack  of 
correctness  in  carrying  the  tune  just  now  is 
not  to  be  compared  with  the  inner  urge 
which  makes  the  child  want  to  express  him- 
self in  this  new  and  delightful  way. 

Of  all  the  sensations  that  come  to  quicken 
the  life  within,  good  music  brings  perhaps 
the  best  and  quickest  appreciation  of  love 
for  the  beautiful.  This  alone  should  give  it 
a  place  in  the  education  of  every  child  and 
a  part  of  the  time  of  every  adult. 

It  is  the  most  universal  of  all  arts.  Our 
Protestant  churches  are  just  beginning  to 
comprehend  the  added  hold  which  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  has  upon  its  wor- 


54  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

filliping  members  by  its  appeal  to  tliem 
through  beautiful  music  that  awakens  the 
more  exalted  emotions. 

I  was  one  morning  inspecting  one  of  our 
free  kindergartens  in  a  very  destitute  dis- 
trict, when,  soon  after  the  singing  began, 
a  woman  opened  the  door,  entered  quietly 
and  sat  down.  Over  her  head  w^as  a  worn 
shawl  of  the  cheap  order  usually  seen  upon 
women  who  are  in  very  limited  financial 
condition.  Wrapped  in  part  of  the  shawl, 
she  carried  a  ten-months-old  infant.  To  my 
surprise,  the  director  of  the  kindergarten 
seemed  to  take  no  notice  of  her  other  than 
with  a  slight  welcoming  nod.  The  woman 
sat  motionless  and  the  sickly  looking  child 
lay  in  her  arms,  with  closed  eyes,  though  I 
could  see  that  he  was  not  asleep.  Wishing 
to  make  her  feel  that  she  was  welcome,  I 
went,  in  a  few  moments,  over  to  her  side, 
and  after  some  words  of  greeting  had  passed 
between  us,  took  the  baby  in  my  arms.  He 
opened  his  eyes  listlessly  and  then  his  head 
dropped.  I  changed  his  position  in  order 
that  he  might  see  the  children  who  were 
singing.  The  mother  saw  what  I  was  try- 
ing to  do  and  leaning  forward,  said  "  Ye 
needn't  be  doing  that,  mum,  he's  blind;  he 


-  yisitors  from  the  Outside  World      55 

can't  see,  mum."  "  Blind !  "  I  exclaimed. 
"  How  long  lias  lie  been  so?  "  "  Ever  since 
he  was  born,  mum,  and  that's  why  I  bring 
him  over  every  day  I  kin,  so's  to  hear  the 
music.  It  ain't  much  enjoyment  he's  going 
to  have  out  of  life,  but  I  thought  I  would 
let  him  learn  to  like  music.  It  will  be  such 
a  pleasure  to  him." 

I  felt  humbled  and  reverent  in  the  pres- 
ence of  so  great  a  mother-heart,  as  I  looked 
at  this  poor,  struggling,  working  woman, 
who  had  taken  time  from  her  wash  tub,  her 
getting  of  meals,  or  some  other  part  of  her 
weary  round  of  daily  drudgery,  in  order 
that  she  might  implant  something  sweet  and 
pure  in  the  life  of  her  helpless  child. 

The  director  of  the  kindergarten,  who  had 
become  accustomed  to  these  daily  visits,  af- 
terwards told  me  that  she  was  the  mother 
of  three  other  children,  two  of  whom  came 
regularly  to  the  kindergarten,  that  her  hus- 
band was  a  day  laborer  and  that  the  family 
lived  in  two  small  rooms  over  a  shop  about 
a  block  away.  She  said  there  was  scarcely 
a  day,  when  the  weather  permitted,  that  the 
woman  did  not  drop  in  with  her  blind  baby 
in  time  for  the  musical  part  of  the  morning. 
I  wondered  how  many  mothers,  who  have 


56  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

every  opportunity  and  advantage  to  give 
their  children  the  true  love  of  music  were 
doing  as  much  as  this  Overworked,  underfed 
and  loving-hearted  woman. 

Ill 

There  are  perhaps  none  of  the  great  myths 
of  the  old  Greek  world  which  signify  more 
than  those  which  give  us  the  story  of  Pan 
and  his  pipes,  or  Orpheus  and  his  lute. 
We  all  remember  how  Pan  with  his  simple 
pipes  of  reed  tamed  all  the  wild  beasts  and 
commanded  them  to  do  his  bidding.  Again 
there  is  the  ancient  legend  which  tells  us  of 
the  fatal  power  of  attraction  which  the  sen- 
sual songs  of  the  sirens  possessed ;  of  Ulysses 
in  Hades,  warned  that  he  must  put  wax  into 
the  ears  of  his  sailors  when  he  passed  the 
fatal  spot  where  the  voices  of  the  sirens 
could  be  heard.  This  he  did,  but  that  was 
not  enough.  Wise  man  that  he  was,  know- 
ing full  well  the  baneful  destruction  which 
lay  beneath  the  sirens'  smiles  and  alluring 
songs,  he  distrusted  himself  to  such  an  ex- 
tent that  he  had  his  body  fastened  with 
ropes  to  the  mast  of  the  ship,  when  about  to 
pass  their  island,  and  gave  instructions  to 
his  sailors  that  they  were  under  no  circum- 


Visitors  from  the  Outside  World      57 

stances  to  release  liim  from  these  bands,  no 
matter  to  what  extent  he  might  by  gesticu- 
lation indicate  that  he  wished  to  be  released. 
A  later  legend  shows  us  that  a  deeper  insight 
had  grown  around  these  old  Greek  stories. 
It  describes  Orpheus  as  sailing  past  the 
direful  place,  all  unmindful  of  the  songs 
and  sighs  of  the  sirens,  because  his  ears  and 
heart  were  filled  with .  the  sweet  music  of 
his  own  harp.  This  last  to  me  has  always 
been  a  wonderfully  significant  and  suggest- 
ive myth. 

Is  there  a  mother  who  reads  this  page  who 
will  not  draw  from  it  a  lesson  full  of  import 
and  help,  as  she  looks  into  the  pure,  confi- 
dent face  of  her  little  boy  and  feels  with  a 
shudder  the  coming  of  that  dreadful  day, 
when  the  sirens  will  sing  their  songs  to  him 
and  hold  out  their  beautiful,  bare  arms  to 
embrace  him?  If  she  knows  anything  of 
life  whatever  she  knows  that  this  time  must 
come.  She  cannot  always  protect  her  boy 
from  it,  and  oftentimes  it  may  come  in  such 
form  as  she  dreams  not  of.  Sometimes  it 
comes  before  the  little  lad  has  reached  his 
teens.  Let  her  read  again  the  story  of 
Orpheus  and  learn  what  these  wise  old 
pagans  can  teach  us  Christians.     Let  her 


58  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

fill  her  child's  soul  while  he  is  yet  a  child, 
with  a  love  of  sweet  music,  of  high  and  holy 
music,  such  as  will  of  itself  arouse  his  as- 
piration and  lift  him  into  the  higher  life 
beyond  the  voices  of  the  sirens  of  tempta- 
tion. Let  her  teach  him  to  love  good  music 
as  she  teaches  him  to  love  pure  air,  sun- 
shine and  the  beauties  of  nature.  Even 
when  the  confines  of  a  crowded  city-life 
seem  to  limit  her  in  the  use  of  these  she  can 
still  help  her  child  to  love  good  music. 

I  have  spoken  elsewhere*  concerning  the 
wealth  of  enjoyment  that  refines  and  up- 
lifts, which  a  training  in  the  perception  of 
beautiful  color  brings,  whether  it  be  in  the 
man-made  fabrics  or  the  inexhaustible  vari- 
ety and  marvelous  harmonies  and  contrasts 
that  are  to  be  found  in  the  world  of  nature, 
the  tints  of  color  in  the  twigs  and  branches 
of  shrubs  —  even  before  the  leaf  buds  begin 
to  take  on  their  delicate  pinks  and  pale 
yellows  —  in  insects,  moths  and  butterflies, 
the  tones  of  green  that  sunlight  and  shadow 
bring  to  the  tree  tops,  the  blues  and  greens 
and  grays  and  purples  that  water  takes  on 
in  reflecting  the  sky.  All  these  and  a  thou- 
sand other  pleasures  are  for  him  who  has 

•  See  "  Some  Silent  Teachers  "  chapter  on  color. 


Visitors  from  the  Outside  World      59 

learned  to  enjoy  color  as  color;  and  the 
most  limited  income  can  give  this  perception 
of  beauty  to  one's  child.  It  is  always  in  the 
sky  and  often  lurks  in  the  vegetable-man's 
cart.  But  the  art  of  music  expresses  the 
joys  and  sorrows  of  the  human  heart  as  can 
no  other  art,  because,  as  has  been  said,  it 
lends  itself  so  readily  to  the  emotions. 

Any  life  that  is  hampered  in  its  emotional 
expression  is  hindered  not  only  in  the  keen 
enjoyment  of  a  thousand  sources  of  pleasure 
but  also  in  the  power  to  sympathize  with 
and  help  others.  Again  Mrs.  Barrett  says : 
"  To  sing  the  lilting  measure  when  the  heart 
is  gay,  to  give  thanks  for  cherished  blessing 
in  the  glad  hymn  of  praise,  to  send  aloft 
on  the  wings  of  song  a  prayer  for  strength 
to  bear  the  burden  or  grief  too  heavy  to  be 
borne  alone  —  this  is  what  God's  great  gift 
of  music  should  mean  to  us.  Let  us  help 
the  little  children  to  enter  into  their  heritage 
of  song." 

Have  not  soldiers  rushed  into  the  arms  of 
death  singing  mighty  battle  hymns  of  their 
nation !  Are  not  the  great  anthems  and  the 
oratorios  the  means  by  which  the  soul  of 
the  multitude  rises  soonest  to  the  most  ex- 
halted  religious  moods?    These  are  the  vis- 


60  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

itors,  who  may,  in  time,  become  your  cliild's 
friends,  leading  him  through  exalted  emo- 
tions to  noble  deeds,  and  thus  opening  wide 
the  door  to  comradeship  with  the  truest  and 
best  men  and  women  that  his  community 
affords.  Dante  pictures  the  happy  souls  in 
his  Paradiso  as  surrounded  always  w4th  an 
infinite  variety  of  color  and  ever-changing 
light,  music  —  glad  songs  of  worship  —  and 
that  joyful  fellowship  where  each  soul  recog- 
nizes the  best  in  all  other  souls.  To  such 
as  these  is  granted  the  vision  of  God.  Truly 
a  profound  psychologist  w^as  Italy's  im- 
mortal poet. 


MASTERING  THE  MACHINE 

I 

FroebePs  deep  insight  into  the  inner 
nature  of  man  is  nowhere  shown  more 
clearly  than  when  speaking  of  the  infant's 
first  conscious  smile.  He  says :  "  This  feel- 
ing of  unity  first  uniting  the  child  with 
mother,  then  later  on  with  father,  brothers 
and  sisters,  and  resting  on  a  higher  spiritual 
unity  with  humanity,  with  God,  this  feeling 
of  community  is  the  very  first  germ  of  all 
true  religious  spirit,  for  all  genuine  yearn- 
ing for  unhindered  unification  with  the 
Eternal  —  with  God." 

This  is  the  so-called  incomprehensible 
mysticism  of  Froebel.  Yet  is  it  mystical? 
If  we  believe  that  man  has  the  power  to 
recognize  himself  as  possessing  an  infinite, 
immortal  spirit  that  can  conquer  all  ex- 
ternal conditions,  even  all  fear  of  death  it- 
self, must  not  that  realization  begin  with 
the  beginning  of  consciousness  of  the  self 
within,  of  which  the  body  is  merely  the  chief 
instrument?     Therefore,  is  it  mysticism  to 

61 


62  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

claim  that,  when  the  love  which  illumines 
a  mother's  smile  awakens  a  smile  in  re- 
sponse on  the  child's  face,  it  means  more 
than  a  "  motor  response  to  sensory  nerves." 
When  and  where  is  the  beginning  of  the 
feeling  of  pleasure  in  his  mother's  presence 
which  is  not  included  in  the  gratification 
of  the  appetite  given  by  the  nourishment 
obtained  from  her  breast? 

Entirely  aside  from  this  interpretation  of 
an  infant's  smile,  we  all  know  that  a  baby 
will  reach  out  his  arms  to  a  swinging  ball 
sooner  than  to  one  that  is  not  in  motion, 
will  coo  in  response  to  the  cooing  tone  of 
his  mother  or  nurse,  will  cry  when  harshly 
spoken  to,  will  cease  his  crying  when  the 
strong,  warm  arms  embrace  him  and  a  gen- 
tle voice  soothes  him.  All  this  is,  of  course, 
partly  physical,  but  is  it  not  also  partly 
psychical?  And  is  not  the  inner  life  being 
nurtured  or  injured  as  the  outside  stimulus 
awakens  helpful  or  harmful  emotions?  Is 
not  this  too  serious  a  matter  to  be  lightly 
set  aside? 

I  saw  a  nursery-maid  force  a  six-months 
baby  into  his  carriage  and  tuck  the  carriage 
blanket  so  closely  around  him  that  his  legs 
and  arms  could  not  assist  in  expressing  the 


Mastering  the  Machine  63 

awakened  wrath  and  indignation  within 
him,  until  his  face  grew  purple  and  his  eyes 
had  an  expression  of  murder  in  them.  I 
moved  to  one  side  so  as  to  see  the  face  of 
the  nurse.  It  was  angry  and  flushed  also. 
Her  mood  had  undoubtedly  intensified  the 
child's  emotional  excitement. 

Again,  I  have  seen  the  same  preparation 
for  the  home-going  made  so  lovingly  and 
gently,  with  bright,  cheery  words  to  the 
baby  who  had  seemed  unwilling,  at  first, 
to  be  placed  in  his  carriage.  He  could  not 
understand  the  words,  but  the  tone  of  the 
nurse's  voice  awakened  a  corresponding 
mood  within  him,  until  he  crowed  with  de- 
light as  the  blanket  was  tucked  around  him. 

In  each  case,  the  child  was  unconsciously 
absorbing  the  mood  of  the  older  person,  and 
this  absorbing  of  mental  conditions  comes 
before  the  actual  imitating  of  physical  activ- 
ities. It  thus  indicates  the  importance  of 
selecting  the  right  person  to  take  care  of 
early  infancy.  It  is  not  enough  to  hire  a 
trained  nurse  to  care  for  the  child,  she 
should  have  a  true  mother-heart  also,  if  the 
inner  life  of  feelings,  involving  instincts, 
impulses  and  emotions  are  to  be  guarded 
and  developed  as  well  as  the  child's  body. 


64  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

They  are  dim  and  helpless  feelings,  but  they 
are  there,  and  many  a  child  has  been  made 
wilful  and  selfish  by  the  mistreatment  of 
them.  In  early  infancy,  the  tone  of  a  voice 
may  jar  or  soothe  this  tender  inner-self  fully 
as  much  as  rough  or  gentle  handling  can 
arouse  physical  pain  or  pleasure. 

As  the  child  grows  older  this  instinctive 
absorbing  of  the  moods  of  those  about  him 
soon  develops  into  imitating  their  gestures 
and  tones.  This,  in  turn,  very  soon  passes 
into  the  effort  to  imitate  the  activities  of 
those  around.  We  have  all  laughed  over 
the  nine-or-ten-months-old  baby's  imitation 
of  his  mother's  delight  when,  having 
achieved  the  tremendous  feat  of  letting  go 
of  the  chair  and  standing  alone,  he  has 
thrown  up  his  hands  in  mimic  astonishment 
and  uttered  an  exclamation  of  joy  before  he 
tumbled  over.  I  have  seen  a  year-old  child 
take  a  dust  cloth  and  after  rubbing  it  along 
the  surface  of  a  chair  or  stool,  shake  it  vig- 
orously in  imitation  of  his  energetic  mother. 

Who  has  not  seen  the  little  two-year-old 
girl  stir  up  imaginary  cake,  or  sip  imaginery 
tea  out  of  her  toy  cup?  She  is  not  merely 
imitating  tea-drinking,  she  is  absorbing  the 
social  mood  of  tea-drinking.    Watch  the  boy 


Mastering  the  Machine  65 

of  the  same  enchanting  age  spread  out  a 
newspaper  before  him  and  pretend  to  be 
absorbed  in  its  contents.  He  is  imitating 
the  preoccupied  mood  of  his  father  as  well 
as  his  act  of  newspaper  reading.  Their 
young  minds  are  more  responsive  than  the 
most  sensitive  photographic  films.  Yet  each 
impression  made  is  awakening  and  feeding 
some  instinct,  or  impulse,  or  desire,  which 
is  helping  to  make  or  mar  the  serene  inner- 
life  which  ought  to  be  the  mood  of  every 
child. 

I  do  not  mean  by  this  that  every  word 
and  deed  should  be  guarded  when  in  the 
presence  of  a  child,  but  I  want  to  emphasize 
the  importance  of  keeping  children  in  sur- 
roundings that  are  wholesome,  and  with  peo- 
ple who  are  sympathetic  without  being  weak 
or  sentimental.  In  other  words,  the  child 
absorbs  the  "  spiritual  atmosphere "  that 
surrounds  him  and  is  fully  as  much  affected 
by  it  as  his  body  is  affected  by  the  fresh  or 
foul  air  of  his  physical  environment.  He 
absorbs  the  one  as  surely  as  he  breathes  in 
the  other.  This  is  the  reason  why  it  is  so 
vital  a  matter  that  what  we  call  "  the  spirit 
of  the  kindergarten  "  should  be  in  the  home 


66  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

and  nursery  as  well  as  in  the  child's  first 
yenture  into  the  life  of  the  school. 

With  this  psychological  insight,  what  shall 
I  say  about  homes  in  which  the  teasing  of 
the  little  child  is  one  of  the  amusements  of 
the  adult  life  about  him,  or  of  those  homes 
in  which  the  child  is  permitted  to  hear  the 
jars  and  jangles  that,  most  unfortunately, 
sometimes  come  between  parents  or  between 
mistress  and  maid?  Blows  upon  the  child's 
tender  flesh  are  less  marring.  In  time, 
bruised  flesh  will  heal.  But  who  can  say, 
when  will  be  wiped  out  the  effects  when  such 
evil  emotions  as  anger,  suspicion,  jealousy 
and  rage  are  aroused?  They,  literally,  not 
only  poison  the  blood,  but  they  check  the 
impulses  which  should  reach  out  from  the 
innermost  depths  of  a  child's  being  toward 
fellowship  with  and  love  of  all  mankind. 
Better  a  millstone  around  one's  neck  and 
that  he  be  cast  into  the  sea  than  thus  to 
offend  one  of  these  little  ones. 

It  is  because  we  have  trifled  with  these 
great,  serious  forces  in  human  life  that  men 
have  learned  to  talk  lightly  and  glibly  of 
the  soul  and  of  God,  and  that  men  and 
women  have  oftentimes  thoughtlessly  given 
over  the  religious  training  of  their  children 


Mastering  the  Machine  67 

to  inexperienced  young  girls  whom,  fre- 
quently, they  do  not  even  know  personally. 
As  before  said,  it  is  only  when  we  realize 
the  tremendous  importance  of  these  spiritual 
factors  in  the  battles  of  life  that  we  com- 
prehend the  importance  of  how  to  appeal 
to  the  right  emotions.  Centuries  of  time 
have  proved  that  it  is  the  spiritual  power  in 
man  that  has  built  up  those  conditions  of 
society  which  distinguish  civilization  from 
the  savage.  "  Where  there  is  no  vision  the 
people  perish  "  is  literally  true. 

The  definite  religious  training  of  a  little 
child  should  not  be  delayed,  but  rather,  if 
rightly  understood,  it  is  to  be  given  early 
and  it  is  to  be  a  constant,  daily,  nourished 
activity.  I  will  try  in  the  following  pages 
to  explain  how  this  may  be  done. 

II 

Let  us  come  back  to  Froebel's  statement 
that  the  first  smile  with  which  a  young  in- 
fant consciously  responds  to  its  mother's 
smile  is  the  dim  dawning  within  the  child's 
soul  of  its  spiritual  relationships.  Froebel 
explains  that  this  is  the  faint  beginning  of 
the  child's  consciousness  of  an  harmonious 
relationship  between  himself  and  other  hu» 


68  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

man  companions;  thus  he  grows  into  the 
feeling  of  fellowship  of  human  beings  until 
it  embraces  ever  larger  and  increasing  num- 
bers. Finally,  the  brotherhood  of  man  will 
signify  more  than  mere  words  which  often- 
times become  empty  and  meaningless. 

The  child  soon  begins  to  have  moods  of 
his  own  not  mere  reaction  to  the  moods  of 
his  attendants.  We  all  know  that  he 
reaches  out  to  seize  any  object  that  pleases 
his  attention,  even  if  it  be  the  moon.  He 
enjoys  also  tumbling  down  the  blocks  that 
mother  or  nurse  may  have  built  up  for  him, 
throwing  things  on  the  floor,  rattling  news- 
papers, etc.  A  little  later,  the  shaking  of 
his  rattle  attracts  him.  In  fact,  anything 
that  in  any  way  quickens  the  dim  feeling  of 
power  to  control  or  alter  any  part  of  the 
external  world  which  surrounds  him  is  a 
matter  of  concern  to  him. 

All  efforts  of  the  child  at  creeping,  sitting 
erect  and  trying  to  stand  steadily  upon  his 
two  legs  come  from  the  impulse  or  the  de- 
(sire  within  to  master  the  muscular  control 
of  the  body ;  not  that  the  child  is  at  all  con- 
scious of  this,  but  the  mother  should  be  con- 
scious, and  in  a  thousand  and  one  ways 
should  encourage  the  mastery  of  his  body. 


Mastering  the  Machine  69 

She  says,  "  How  tall  is  baby?  "  and  tlie  lit- 
tle one  learns  to  stretch  his  body  and  extend 
his  arms  to  their  full  height;  or,  "  How 
much  does  baby  love  Mamma?"  and  the 
little  arms  will  clasp  around  her  neck  with 
a  vigor  heretofore  unexercised.  All  such 
bodily  activities  indicate  his  will  trying  to 
tell  of  his  love.  She  teaches  him  to  wave 
"  good-by  "  as  father  leaves  the  house.  She 
plays  with  him  a  little  game  of  "  Pat-a- 
cake"  long  before  he  has  any  idea  of  the 
significance  of  the  words.  He  simply  knows 
that  the  rythmic  clapping  of  his  hands 
pleases  his  mother.  She  plays  "Peek-a- 
boo  "  with  him  and  his  whole  body  joins 
in  the  hiding  or  the  discovery.  She  lets  him 
crawl  laboriously  across  the  room  when  it 
would  have  been  so  easy  to  have  carried  him 
to  where  he  wanted  to  go.  She  allows  him 
to  pull  and  drag  at  the  small  stool  when  it 
would  have  saved  time  had  she  picked  it 
up  and  placed  it  where  he  would  have  it. 
She  lets  him  climb  with  much  difficulty  into 
the  low,  easy  chair,  climb  out  of  it  and  again 
climb  into  it,  because  she  knows  that  all 
such  vigorous  activities  of  the  body  are 
helpful  in  the  growth  of  the  will  as  well  as 
in  the  development  of  physical  strength. 


70  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

Of  course,  there  is  danger  of  activity  to 
the  point  of  fatigue  and  the  intelligent 
mother  knows  that  little  arms  and  legs  soon 
tire  as  they  have  not  yet  attained  their  pro- 
portionate growth;  and  yet  she  knows  also 
that  exercise  is  quite  essential  for  them. 
When  he  has  attained  unto  that  marvelous 
accomplishment  —  when  physically  he  is 
separating  himself  from  her  —  she  can  still 
keep  him  close  to  her  spiritually  by  her 
sympathetic  interest  in  each  of  these  new 
attainments. 

I  had  once  the  great  pleasure  of  being  in 
the  home  of  an  almost  ideal,  kindergarten- 
trained  mother.  Every  evening  when  the 
fretting  time  of  her  baby  daughter  drew  near 
she  dropped  all  other  activities,  undressed 
the  little  one  and  robed  her  in  her  freshly 
aired  nightgown  and  laid  her  flat  on  her 
back  on  the  bed.  Then  began  a  romp  with 
her,  singing  a  rollicking  little  song  as  she 
caught  first  one  leg  and  then  the  other,  or 
perchance  one  arm  and  then  the  other,  some- 
times rolling  the  little  body  over,  still  sing- 
ing gleefully.  The  child  squirmed  and 
twisted,  pulling  her  legs  free  from  the 
mother's  hands  or  rolled  herself  back  into 
her  former  position,  crowing  with  delight 
throughout   the    entire   play.      .When    the 


Mastering  the  Machine  71 

child's  voice  began  to  lessen  its  tone  of 
pleasure,  the  romp  ceased.  The  mother 
smoothed  down  the  rumpled  gown  and  the 
baby  was  laid,  tired  and  happy,  on  her  own 
small  bed  and  was  soon  sound  asleep. 

This  was  not  only  good  for  the  baby 
physically,  as  it  caused  the  wholesome 
fatigue  that  brings  sound  sleep ;  but  it  was 
also  good  for  the  child  spiritually  in  that  it 
left  her  in  a  mood  of  companionship  and 
trust.  We  all  know  when  a  child  begins  to 
walk  alone,  how  he  loves  to  run  around  the 
table  or  chair  with  no  other  motive  than  the 
enjoyment  of  running  on  two  legs.  Even 
when  he  tumbles  down  or  stumbles  over  his 
stool,  a  word  of  encouragement  from  the 
mother  starts  him  out  again. 

In  some  nurseries  a  flat-top  fence  is  pro- 
vided so  that  the  little  one  may  exercise  the 
muscles  used  in  walking  and  yet  not  fatigue 
them  too  much,  as  he  soon  learns  to  rest  the 
weight  of  his  body  on  the  top  of  the  hori- 
zontal fence  while  stepping  along.  A  little 
later  is  used  a  board,  about  five  inches  wide 
and  raised  by  strong  supports  about  an  inch 
above  the  floor,  "  to  walk  on  "  which  be- 
comes the  young  adventurer's  delight.  On 
this  board,  so  near  the  floor,  a  child  soon 


72  Unseen,  Side  of  Child  Life 

learns  to  walk  with  ease  and  poise  and  some- 
times to  run.  A  like  delight  is  shown  by 
older  children  when  walking  on  the  elevated 
curbstone  so  dear  to  the  childish  heart. 

For  several  years,  in  my  own  kindergar- 
ten, I  had  what  is  known  as  a  housekeeper's 
step-ladder.  A  substantially  built  ladder 
with  six  broad  steps.  It  usually  stood  near 
the  blackboard  in  order  that  the  children 
could  use  it  when  they  wanted  to  draw  the 
sun,  moon  or  stars  "  way  up  above  the 
houses."  I  do  not  now  recall  our  ever  hav- 
ing an  accident  in  connection  with  this  lad- 
der as  the  custom  of  the  school  was  that  the 
older  children  usually  drew  the  celestial 
bodies  for  the  children  who  had  not  yet 
learned  to  climb.  And,  oh,  how  proud  they 
were  of  the  achievement ! 

Years  later  I  found  that  in  both  Germany 
and  France  one  of  the  requirements  in  the 
kindergarten  was  that  the  children  should 
climb  a  stairway  each  day.  It  was  with 
them,  so  far  as  I  could  ascertain,  merely  an 
exercise,  not  the  means  to  an  end.  When 
we  were  studying  in  Eome,  with  Dr.  Montes- 
sori,  a  friend  of  mine  visited  an  outlying 
Casa  dei  Bambini.  The  children  were  on  the 
roof  of  the  three-story  house  playing,  but  a 


Mastering  the  Machine  73 

signal  was  given  and  my  friend  saw  them, 
thirty-five  in  all,  some  not  three  years  of 
age,  come  down  a  flight  of  steep,  outside 
stone  steps,  built  against  the  wall  of  the 
house.  The  steps  were  less  than  two  feet 
iWide,  yet  not  a  child  hesitated. 

Toymakers  have  invented  a  contrivance  — 
called  "  kiddie  car  "  —  by  means  of  which 
a  child  may  be  seated  and  yet  keep  pace 
with  his  adult  attendant  by  moving  his  legs 
up  and  down  without  the  weight  of  his  body 
pressing  upon  them.  For  older  children 
there  are  swings  giving  free,  rhythmic  mo- 
tion, the  trapeze,  with  which  the  limitations 
of  the  weak  muscles  may  be  overcome  in 
play,  and  sliding  boards  for  destroying  tim- 
idity and  engendering  physical  courage. 

Tight  clothing  or  very  elaborate  clothing, 
in  fact  any  form  of  clothing  that  makes  the 
child  conspicuous  or  conscious  of  his  body, 
hinders  this  very  important  form  of  play, 
for  until  the  body  becomes  free,  with  the 
spontaneous  use  of  every  muscle  of  the 
body^ — the  easily  commanded  instrument 
of  the  spirit  —  it  cannot  rightly  deliver  the 
spirit's  message. 

How  a  young  child  loves  to  be  held  high 
in  the  air  by  its  father,  and  sometimes  to 


74  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

be  tossed  still  higher.  It  is  a  lesson  in  faith 
fully  as  much  as  in  bodily  courage.  I  one 
time  saw  a  little  two-year-old  child  jump 
from  a  second  story  porch  into  the  arms  of 
her  father  who  stood  on  the  ground  below; 
again,  I  saw  the  same  child  wade  fearlessly 
into  the  water  until  it  reached  her  chin, 
because  her  father's  outstretched  arms  were 
waiting  for  her. 

Long  before  the  kindergarten  age,  the 
child  is  unconsciously  training  his  body  to 
obey  the  commands  of  his  spirit.  If  this 
cooperation  of  body  and  mind  could  be  kept 
up  there  would  not  be  the  self-consciousness 
so  often  painfully  expressed  by  older  boys 
and  girls  when  they  become  conscious  that 
their  bodies  are  not  obeying  their  intentions. 
Do  you  yourself  not  know  men  and  women 
who  have  been  handicapped  throughout  life 
by  awkward  bodies  which  should  have  been 
rightly  exercised  in  childhood?  The  diflft- 
culty  is  that  many  mothers  do  not  realize 
the  value  of  these  simple  forms  of  a  young 
child's  physical  activity  in  which  the  mind 
and  heart  begin  their  training  along  with 
the  body. 

Many  children  in  the  stage  of  infancy  are 
left  feebly  to  express  themselves  through 


Mastering  the  Machine  75 

meaningless  gestures  which  are  without 
mental  stimulus.  Let  me  illustrate.  There 
came  one  autumn,  into  my  kindergarten,  a 
five-year-old  boy,  the  only  son  of  wealthy 
parents.  He  was  one  of  the  shyest  and  most 
easily  embarrassed  children  I  have  ever 
met,  and  this  shyness  often  showed  itself  in 
grotesque  attitudes  of  his  body  and  grimaces 
of  his  face.  He  would  sometimes  seem  al- 
most to  twist  his  features  out  of  shape.  At 
first,  this  astonished  the  other  children  and 
then  amused  them.  When  they  would  laugh 
at  the  comic  expressions  which  his  twisted 
nose  or  crooked  mouth  would  produce,  he 
would  blush  and  squirm  in  a  painful  man- 
ner. I  saw  that  he  was  really  suffering,  al- 
though to  the  children  he  was  apparently 
trying  to  be  funny.  I  quietly  persuaded 
them  not  to  laugh  when  he  made  these 
funny  gestures,  telling  them  that  he  did  not 
yet  know  how  to  act  in  our  kindergarten, 
but  that  he  would  soon  learn. 

In  the  meantime,  I  called  upon  his  mother 
to  try  to  get  her  help  in  the  case.  After 
talking  on  indifferent  subjects  for  a  little 
while,  I  asked  her  to  tell  me  something 
about  his  infancy  and  early  childhood,  stat- 
ing that  I  did  not  quite  understand  him. 


76  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

She  seemed  a  little  surprised  at  my  remark, 
and  said  there  was  nothing  unusual  to  tell, 
but  added :  "  When  he  was  a  baby  he  would 
lie  for  hours  on  the  bed  doing  nothing,  but 
he  was  perfectly  good-natured."  I  asked  if 
he  had  any  toys  or  other  objects  within  his 
reach.  She  said :  "  Oh,  no,  he  would  simply 
lie  there  and  twist  his  mouth  into  funny 
shapes,  or  lift  his  eyebrows  up  and  down 
but  that  he  was  such  a  good  baby  and  was 
so  little  trouble."  I  saw  at  once  the  begin- 
ning of  the  child's  difficulty.  His  body  had 
responded  to  the  thousand  and  one  sensa- 
tions which  every  hour  of  the  day  poured 
in  upon  the  infant  mind,  but  there  had  been 
no  mother's  cooing  songs  or  baby  play  to 
help  direct  the  response  of  the  motor  nerves 
to  the  stimulation  that  the  outside  world 
was  bringing  to  him  through  his  sense  or- 
gans. Consequently,  the  physical  response 
had  been  haphazard  and  meaningless.  In 
other  words,  his  body  had  grown  while  his 
mind  lay  torpid.  Of  course,  my  remedy  was 
to  keep  him  so  busy  and  to  give  him  so  much 
to  do  that  he  would  forget  his  awkwardness. 
But  it  was  a  painful  task  for  both  him  and 
me. 
On  the  other  hand,  infants  are  often  stim- 


Mastering  the  Machine  77 

ulated  too  mucli  by  tlieir  vain  mothers  or 
proud  nurses,  who  are  desirous  of  showing 
their  friends  "  how  smart  the  little  fellow 
is."  Both  of  these  mistakes  are  serious  sins 
against  the  child's  physical  welfare  and 
hamper  the  development  of  his  mental  life 
and  the  true  sincerity  which  comes  from 
the  body  expressing  frankly  the  spirit's 
message.  This  ought  to  be  the  most  precious 
gift  that  parents  can  bestow  ui)on  their 
offspring. 

These  first  nursery  games  are  seemingly 
so  insignificant  that  they  are  either  neg- 
lected or  used  thoughtlessly  because  of  the 
parent's  desire  to  fondle  his  child  when  he 
himself  wants  to  be  amused  and  his  love 
has  found  no  better  way  to  express  itself. 
But  to  the  student  of  the  psychology  of  chil- 
dren's play,  they  are  significant;  first,  be- 
cause they  are  the  almost  imperceptible 
means  by  which  mother-love  instinctively 
guides  these  spontaneous  activities  of  the 
child's  body.  They  cause  also  a  change  of 
brain  activity  which  is  quite  necessary,  as 
the  brain  of  an  infant  is  only  partially  de- 
veloped at  the  time  of  birth  and  fatigues 
very  easily.  They  also,  in  the  form  of  play, 
create  a   cheerful   or  happy   mood  in   the 


78  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

mother  herself  which  brings  her  into  a 
closer  relationship  with  her  child,  who  is  as 
yet  unconscious  of  why  he  loves  a  merry 
tone  of  voice  instead  of  either  an  irritated 
or  a  tired  tone.  It  is  also  an  excellent  thing 
for  every  adult  at  times  to  become  as  a  little 
child. 

'Our  purpose  here  is  to  call  attention  to 
the  value  of  knowing  how  to  suit  the  young 
child's  external  surroundings  to  his  physi- 
cal condition  and  thereby  help  him  to  form 
an  harmonious,  happy,  attitude  toward  life 
and  the  world  at  large.  The  too  high- 
strung,  nervous  child  needs  quiet  surround- 
ings with  simple,  pleasing  exercise  that  does 
not  excite  him,  and  crowds  should  be 
avoided.  The  child  who  early  shows  that 
he  is  physically  handicapped,  slow  or  men- 
tally defective,  needs  stimulating  exercise. 

I  once  witnessed  a  most  pathetic  scene 
and  at  the  same  time  a  beautiful  evidence  of 
instinctive  mother-love  and  wisdom.  It  was 
a  summer  day ;  in  the  park  on  a  bench,  was 
seated  a  young  mother,  evidently  of  the 
poorer  class  of  wage-earners.  Near  her, 
romped  two  of  her  children,  about  three 
and  four  years  of  age ;  on  her  lap  was  a  ten- 
or-twelve-montlis-old  babv.    One  glance  into 


Mastering  the  MacMne  79 

the  little  one's  face  was  enough  to  tell  of 
the  lack  of  mental  life.  Every  now  and 
then,  the  mother  would  dandle  the  child  in 
the  air  or  trot  it  on  her  knee,  singing  a  lively 
little  dance  song,  then  she  would  nestle  it 
close  in  her  arms  and  let  it  rest  awhile  and 
then  renew  the  enlivening  sensation  of  song 
and  dance.  This  was  done  so  systematically 
and  regularly  that  I  felt  sure  she  knew  con- 
sciously that  she  was  quickening  the  child's 
inner  life  by  outer  stimulus.  Whether  this 
insight  had  been  given  her  by  some  good 
doctor,  or  sensible  nurse,  or  was  the  almost 
divine  "  mother  instinct "  often  found  in 
women  of  limited  education,  I  could  not 
ascertain  as  the  barrier  of  a  foreign  lan- 
guage stood  between  us.  I  longed  to  ex- 
plain to  her  that  it  would  be  better  for  the 
child,  to  have  him  reach  out  for  some  object 
such,  for  example,  as  a  bright-colored  ball 
swung  on  a  string,  a  canary  in  its  cage  or 
some  other  moving  object,  as  in  that  case  he 
would  have  to  make  an  effort  to  reach  the 
object,  whereas  her  dancing  him  up  and 
down,  although  good  in  itself,  lacked  the 
definite  effort  of  will  on  the  baby's  part. 

All   infirmaries   and   schools    for   handi- 
capped children  use  some  such  plan  in  devel- 


80  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

oping  the  feeble  will  of  these  unfortunate 
little  ones.  A  visit  for  a  day  to  the  State  In- 
stitution for  the  Feeble-Minded  at  Waverly, 
Massachusetts,  would  convince  any  one  of 
the  value  of  understanding  the  significance 
of  the  relation  between  the  right  exercise  of 
the  mind  and  body.  Children  who  enter 
this  institution  unable  to  walk  or  to  dress 
themselves  are  in  time  trained  into  being 
willing  and  efficient  helpers  in  the  house- 
hold work  and  later  join  in  the  labor  on  the 
farm.  They  also  have  dancing  and  some 
dramatic  entertainments  of  a  simple  kind, 
and  most  of  them  thus  developed  seem 
happy  and  contented  in  their  limited  sphere. 
I  wish  every  young  mother  might  read 
Dr.  Dearborn's  little  book  on  the  "  Influence 
of  Joy  "  which  shows  the  effect  that  joy  has 
on  the  nervous  system,  the  respiration  and 
the  rest  of  the  functioning  organs  of  the 
body.  Any  educated  physician  will  tell  you 
that  fretfulness  retards,  and  happiness  pro- 
motes, health;  and  any  true  kindergartner 
will  tell  you  that  happiness  is  as  necessary 
to  a  child's  right  growth  as  sunshine  is  to  a 
flower.  I  do  not  mean  by  this  that  a  young 
child's  mere  caprices  should  be  humored; 
that  does  not  bring  happiness.    Right  activ- 


Mastering  the  Machine  81 

ity  prompted  by  right  emotions  is  what  is 
needed.  Study  a  child  whose  feelings  have 
been  hurt:  see  how  his  body  shrinks  back, 
how  his  chest  sinks,  how  his  head  droops 
and  the  light  in  his  eyes  recedes.  Study  an 
angry  child  and  notice  the  tense  tightening 
of  the  muscles,  the  set  strain  of  the  face  and 
the  harsh  tone  of  the  voice.  Or,  on  the 
other  hand,  w^atch  for  a  few  minutes  a  child 
bubbling  over  with  happiness.  Notice  the 
relaxing  of  every  muscle,  the  lifting  of  the 
head,  the  added  light  that  comes  into  the 
eyes,  the  smile  on  the  face,  the  light,  joyous 
tone  of  the  voice,  and  you  will  be  convinced 
that  the  emotions  are  moulding  and  shaping 
bodily  conditions. 

And  yet,  from  the  average  educational 
etandpoint,  how  much  attention  is  given  to 
keeping  children  happy  and  interested  in 
their  occupations?  Go  into  the  average  day 
nursery,  where  children  have  come  from 
their  drab,  dreary  homes  and  have  been 
washed  and  dressed  and  fed  but  whose  emo- 
tional life  has  been  considered  no  more  than 
if  it  did  not  exist.  In  many  of  the  day 
nurseries  that  I  have  visited  the  children 
are  placed  in  chairs,  or  allowed  listlessly  to 
wander  about  until  the  time  comes  for  feed- 


82  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

ing  again  or  for  the  morning  nap.  All  these 
precious  hours  could  be  utilized  in  some 
baby  play  or  some  simple  activity  which 
would  give  them  just  enough  concentration 
to  awaken  interest  and  stir  the  dawning 
consciousness  of  power  to  do  things. 

Later  on,  we  all  know  what  such  delights 
as  football,  tramps,  rowing,  swimming,  and 
the  like  do  for  the  body  and  if  used  aright, 
how  they  aid  the  higher  life.  Boy  scouting 
has  taught  many  a  boy  to  eat  plain  food, 
to  sleep  on  a  hard  bed  and  to  tramp  miles 
uncomplainingly  when  out  scouting.  And 
this  has  taught  him  to  master  indulgence  in 
the  mere  gratification  of  sensation  and  to 
use  his  body  for  higher  purposes  than  sensu- 
ous enjoyment,  which  so  easily  turns  when 
tempted  into  sensual  indulgence.  If  thus 
trained  to  show  his  manliness  by  abstaining 
from  what  is  unwholesome  for  his  body,  he 
will  the  more  readily  understand  that  the 
body  is  the  temple  in  which  the  Spirit 
dwells.  Girls'  camps  are  also  valuable,  when 
rightly  conducted. 

I  know  a  fourteen-year-old  boy  who  had 
developed  his  muscular  power  to  an  unusual 
degree,  of  which  achievement  he  was  very 
proud.    Not  infrequently,  when  guests  were 


Mastering  the  Machine  83 

present,  he  made  a  display  of  liis  physical 
strength  by  picking  his  mother  up  in  his 
arms  and  carrying  her  from  the  dining  room 
to  the  living  room  on  the  second  floor.  After 
an  exhibit  of  this  sort  on  one  occasion,  a 
friend,  who  was  dining  with  the  family,  said 
to  him :  "  You  certainly  have  a  remarkable 
amount  of  strength.  How  are  you  going  to 
use  it;  as  a  Goliath  or  a  St.  Christopher?  " 
The  boy  afterward  told  me  of  the  incident 
and  he  added :  "  That  question  was  a 
corker ! "  It  contained  the  two  ways  in 
which  physical  strength  may  be  trained, 
and  it  suggested  the  two  motives,  one  or  the 
other  of  which  may  be  given  for  the  encour- 
agement of  physical  exercise  from  the  be- 
ginning. This  was  the  idea  Froebel  had 
when  he  wrote  his  "  Motlier-Play  Songs," 
now  so  much  derided,  because  so  misused 
and  so  misunderstood. 

We  frequently  hear  men  say,  "  That  fel- 
low must  learn  to  stand  on  his  own  legs  if 
he  is  ever  going  to  amount  to  anything," 
meaning  that  the  young  man  in  question 
must  learn  to  depend  on  his  own  exertion 
to  earn  a  living.  They  are  probably  not 
aware  of  the  fact  that,  in  commenting  thus 
on  a  young  man's  moral  stability  they  are 


84  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

using  a  figure  of  speech  which  comes  direct 
from  the  nursery,  where  self-reliance  prop- 
erly begins. 

Ill 

Physiological  psychologists  tell  us  that 
the  sensory  nerves  of  the  child  receive  a 
stimulation  from  the  sights,  sounds,  etc.,  of 
the  outside  world  through  the  sense  organs 
of  taste,  touch,  smell,  sight,  hearing,  weight 
and  temperature,  and  communicate  the  same 
to  the  motor  nerves,  although  they  frankly 
confess  that  they  do  not  know  just  how  the 
stimulation  is  transmitted  from  the  one  set 
of  nerves  enclosed  in  a  medullary  sheath  to 
the  other  set  similarly  enclosed.  These  au- 
thorities do  not  attempt  to  explain  why  the 
body  is  thus  constructed. 

Our  purpose  has  been  to  suggest  how  the 
mother  may  help  the  little  child  in  his  feeble 
attempt  to  master  his  own  body  and  to 
give  her  a  reasonable  explanation  for  his  de- 
sire to  control  this  complex  construction  of 
nerves  and  muscles. 

This  explanation  is  almost  as  old  as  the 
record  of  mankind,  certainly  as  old  as  the 
time  when  man  began  to  think  of  and  discuss 
his  "  self  "  or  inner  life  of  emotion,  will  and 
thought.     From  Plato  down  it  has  been  a 


Mastering  the  Machine  85 

familiar  theme  discussed  by  all  thinkers; 
and  probably  long  before  Plato's  day  it  was 
doubtless  the  subject  of  earnest  thought.  It 
is  the  master  message  of  the  great  Christ 
Jesus  to  mankind  —  the  devout  and  rever- 
ent belief  that  man  has  within  him  that 
which  is  superior  to  time,  space  and  the 
material  world,  and  which  will  rise  above 
these  into  eternity.  As  already  stated,  the 
fundamental  doctrine  of  all  forms  of  the 
Christian  religion,  Greek,  Koman  and 
Protestant  is  that  man  is  a  child  of  God, 
not  bodily,  in  flesh  and  in  blood,  but  in  the 
power  of  the  spirit  to  go  out  of  the  body  in 
genuine  sympathy  with  the  sorrowing,  or 
to  rejoice  with  the  happy,  to  transform  de- 
sire and  choice  into  actual  deed  and  to  com- 
municate thought  through  centuries  of  time. 
I  have  had  young  women  come  to  me  so 
shut  in  and  hampered  by  their  bodies  that 
it  took  a  long  time  for  them  to  get  the  free- 
dom which  is  necessary  for  the  kindergart- 
ner  if  she  is  to  be  the  true  playmate  and 
inspiration  of  little  children.  They  some- 
times reminded  me  of  the  statues  which 
have  been  sent  to  our  Art  Institute  encased 
in  stiff  wooden  crates  through  the  slats  of 
which  one  gets  glimpses  of  the  beautiful 


86  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

imprisoned  forms  within.  I  feel  that  this 
is  a  serious  subject  for  the  young  mother  to 
consider.  It  lies  within  her  power  to  send 
her  child  forth  to  fight  both  the  material 
and  spiritual  battles  of  the  world  with  a 
well,  strong  body,  rightly  poised  and  at 
ease. 

The  world  should  be  alive  and  full  of 
friends  to  every  child  before  he  reaches  the 
stage  of  development  when  discriminations 
and  antagonisms  necessarily  come  in.  This 
"  unity  of  life  "  is  one  of  the  most  delight- 
ful traits  of  children,  as  it  is  the  re- 
sult of  a  natural,  normal  and  wholesome 
development. 

I  had  occasion  one  time  to  take  a  walk 
with  a  charming  little  girl  five  years  of  age. 
On  our  way  home  she  was  describing  to  me, 
in  a  bright,  animated  fashion,  how  the  af- 
ternoon before  she  had  washed  her  dolls* 
clothes  and  hung  them  up  to  dry.  She  was 
in  the  midst  of  the  eager  description  of  this 
domestic  experience,  when  a  tall,  dignified- 
looking  man  approached  us  from  the  oppo- 
site direction.  The  child's  animated  face 
and  voice  evidently  attracted  his  attention. 
His  own  features  relaxed,  and  just  as  he 


Mastering  the  Machine  87 

was  about  to  pass  us,  lie  apparently  could 
not  resist  the  temptation  to  come  personally 
for  a  moment  in  contact  with  such  sweet 
child-life,  for  he  said :  "  Hello !  hello !  what's 
all  this  about?  "  The  little  girl  instantly 
stopped  and  looking  up  smilingly  into  his 
face  said:  "I  was  just  telling  her  about 
how  I  washed  Mary  Louise's  petticoats  and 
underwear  yesterday.  They  were  awful 
dirty  and  I  had  to  scrub  'em  hard."  The 
man  was  taken  by  surprise  at  this  sudden 
manifestation  of  perfect  confidence  in  the 
sincerity  of  his  request.  He  looked  embar- 
rassed and  said :  "  Oh !  oh !  Is  that  so ! 
Is  that  so !  "  lifted  his  hat  politely  and  hur- 
ried on.  The  child  slipped  her  hand  in  mine 
again  and  continued  her  conversation  as 
unconcernedly  as  if  it  had  been  momentarily 
interrupted  by  her  father  or  some  familiar 
friend.  To  her  all  the  world  were  friends, 
so  why  not  tell  of  her  delightful  experiences 
to  anyone  who  might  inquire  concerning 
them?  The  boy  or  girl  who  shrinks  from 
strangers  or  becomes  self-conscious  when 
spoken  to  has  lost  the  sweet  "  unity  of  life," 
which  begins  with  the  unity  of  the  body 
and  mind  that  leads  to  genuine  sincerity. 


88  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

IV 

But  you  may  ask,  "  What  has  this  to  do 
with  religion?  "  We  answer  unhesitatingly, 
"  Much,  if  done  in  the  right  way."  A  sound 
mind  is  sometimes  found  in  a  frail  body  and 
a  strong  body  sometimes  contains  a  weak 
soul.  There  are  always  exceptions,  of 
course,  but  I  am  speaking  of  the  general 
rule.  When  I  was  once  urging  the  impor- 
tance of  healthy  babyhood  from  the  stand- 
point of  morality  and  religion,  a  witty  friend 
said :  "  If  I  understand  you  aright.  Jack 
Johnson,  the  prize  fighter,  is  a  more  to  be 
desired  citizen  than  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson, 
the  philosopher."  "  No,"  I  replied,  "  But 
undoubtedly  Jack  Johnson  would  have  been 
a  less  desirable  citizen  if  he  had  had  a  dis- 
eased body.  And  who  can  say  what  Ralph 
Waldo  Emerson  or  Thomas  Carlyle  might 
have  accomplished  if  they  had  possessed 
good  digestive  powers?  To  come  closer 
home :  would  Theodore  Roosevelt  have  been 
of  as  much  service  to  this  country  had 
his  father  not  had  the  wisdom  to  fit  up  the 
upstairs  side  porch  in  his  New  York  City 
home  with  gymnastic  apparatus  and  encour- 
age the  delicate  boy  to  make  use  of  it?  " 

However,  in  this  day  when  a  National 


Mastering  the  Machine  89! 

Better-Health  Movement  is  being  so  vigor- 
ously pushed  it  seems  almost  absurd  to  stop 
to  comment  on  the  value  of  training  the 
body  into  strong,  vigorous  life  were  it  not 
that  the  moral  result  and  the  consequent 
religious  view  engendered  is  so  often  lost 
sight  of,  and  this  is  largely  because  of  the 
non-comprehension  of  the  importance  of  be- 
ginning the  physical  activities  aright. 


THE    INVISIBLE    BRIDGE 

I 

Emerson  has  well  said,  "  The  mastery  of 
a  new  language  doubles  a  man's  capacity 
for  expression."  We  know  that  practically 
in  the  affairs  of  this  life,  man  attains 
through  the  mastery  of  language  much 
power  to  serve  in  a  material  way,  and  there 
dawns  on  us  still  greater  significance  of 
language  when  we  observe  how  readily  a 
child  with  far  more  ease  can  acquire  two 
or  three  languages  than  can  an  adult.  Per- 
sonally, I  have  met  children  in  Europe  who 
spoke  correctly  and  fluently,  French,  Eng- 
lish and  German,  and  I  have  known  of  one 
case  where  a  child  five  years  of  age  could 
speak  five  languages,  not  with  a  large 
vocabulary,  of  course,  but  with  accuracy  of 
accent  and  expression. 

Modern  psychologists  teach  us  that  the 
special  language  center  of  the  brain  is  most 
active  when  the  child  is  learning  articulate 
speech.  But  if  we  accept  the  Christian  phil- 
osophy of  life  as  meaning  the  brotherhood 

90 


The  Invisible  Bridge  91' 

of  man  and  the  fatlierliood  of  God,  we  see 
the  larger  and  deeper  reason  for  this  early 
ability  to  acquire  a  mastery  over  the  natu- 
ral, racial  barriers  of  speech.  But  for  the 
wide  range  of  expression  that  language 
gives,  there  would  be  very  little  develop- 
ment of  religious  life  beyond  the  supersti- 
tious prostration  of  the  body  before  the 
forces  of  nature  and  the  uttering  of  groans 
and  lamentations  of  sounds,  or  the  wild, 
so-called  religious  dance  of  savage  tribes 
that  often  end  in  sensual  indulgence.  With 
definite,  clearly  understood  language,  man 
is  enabled  not  only  to  communicate  his  best 
thoughts  and  experiences  to  his  fellow  man, 
but  to  leave  these  high  moods  expressed  in 
language  for  help  and  inspiration  to  future 
generations.  How  much  mankind  has  ob- 
tained from  the  noblest  minds  of  the  past! 
How  many  hearts  have  been  comforted  by 
the  Twenty-third  Psalm!  How  many  lives 
have  been  guided  by  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount;  to  how  many  minds  the  thirteenth 
chapter  of  Corinthians  has  shown  the  path 
of  Christian  love  and  sympathy ! 

How  much  poorer  the  spiritual  life  of 
man  would  be  but  for  the  records  left  by 
the  great  poets,  philosophers  and  saints! 


92  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

Thougli  dead  these  hundreds  of  years 
their  utterances  still  soothe  our  hearts, 
strengthen  our  will-power  and  make  clear 
the  meaning  of  life !  Thus  they  sweep  away 
jealousy,  envy,  self-pity  and  all  those 
meaner  traits  that  hinder  the  God-ward 
growth  of  the  soul.  Of  all  the  inborn  in- 
stincts that  surge  within  a  little  child, 
seeking  for  utterance,  the  impulse  to  imi- 
tate the  activities  about  him  and  to  repeat 
the  words  and  tones  he  hears  are  those  to 
which  the  mother  should  give  closest  atten- 
tion and  the  true  significance  of  which  she 
should  understand,  if  she  desires  to  aid  her 
child,  sympathetically  and  intelligently,  in 
the  development  of  his  inner,  spiritual  life. 
The  child's  power  to  express  himself  not 
merely  through  bodily  action  but  also  by 
means  of  w^ords,  starts  lines  or  "  tracks  " 
of  emotion,  good  or  bad.  The  right  or 
wrong  feeling  is  easily  repeated,  and  once 
manifested,  leads  readily  to  right  or  wrong 
willing  and  thinking,  which  soon  form 
habits  or  attitudes  toward  life  and  thus 
help  or  hinder  the  receptivity  to  religious 
teaching. 

A  young  child,  even  a  mere  infant,  begins 
to  manifest  his  hunger  for  closer  comrade- 


The  Invisible  Bridge  93 

ship  with  those  about  him,  by  look  and  ges- 
ture, by  holding  out  the  object  he  has  cap- 
tured for  mother  or  nurse  to  admire  or  use. 

Little  children  have  in  common  with 
young  animals  what  is  commonly  called 
"  the  play  instinct."  That  is,  they  love  to 
run,  to  jump,  to  hop,  to  skip  and  to  handle 
the  objects  with  which  they  come  in  con- 
tact. Even  very  young  children  toss  their 
legs  and  arms  about  seemingly  in  enjoy- 
ment of  mere  motion.  This  apparently 
aimless  activity  is  usually  spoken  of  as 
"  animal  spirits  "  and  is  rightly  considered 
as  a  healthy  indication  showing  that  the 
child  is  in  good  physical  condition.  But 
the  mother  instinctively  feels  that  her  child 
is  something  more  than  a  "  little  animal." 
Therefore,  when  her  baby  looks  up  into  her 
face,  although  he  is  as  yet  scarcely  able  to 
steady  the  muscles  of  his  eye  sufficiently  to 
focus  his  gaze  upon  her  face,  she  smiles  lov- 
ingly down  upon  him  and  instinctively, 
almost  unconsciously,  utters  some  cooing 
sound  in  order  to  hold  his  feeble  attention. 

This  is  the  dim  dawn  of  language.  It  is 
the  child's  first  effort  to  cross  the  invisible 
bridge  that  separates  him  from  the  rest  of 
humanity.    Soon  his  mother  begins  to  play 


94  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

with  him,  uttering  all  sorts  of  sounds  best 
known  to  mother  hearts.  The  longing 
within  her  to  come  nearer  to  her  baby's  real 
inner-self  than  mere  caresses  and  hugs  of 
his  body  can  bring  her,  causes  her  to  begin 
to  speak  a  few  simple  words  to  her  child. 
She  says:  "Mother's  precious  one!" 
"  Mamma's  little  lamb !  "  "  Sweetest  thing 
in  the  world ! "  or  some  similar  term  of  en- 
dearment, although  she  knows  that  the 
child  does  not  understand  a  word  she  is 
saying.  Out  of  this  instinctive  desire  on 
her  part  to  begin  her  closer  companionship 
with  her  child's  spirit,  have  arisen  the 
"  nursery  songs  "  that  from  time  immemo- 
rial have  been  crooned  or  sung  to  each  suc- 
ceeding generation  of  helpless  infants  ten- 
derly nestled  in  mother-arms. 

As  soon  as  the  baby  begins  voluntarily  to 
move  its  limbs  and  voluntarily  to  open  and 
shut  its  eyes,  to  utter  faint,  gurgling 
sounds,  the  instinctive  mother  feels  and  the 
intelligent  mother  knows,  that  her  work  of 
nurturing  her  child's  spiritual  life  through 
play  and  song  is  to  begin.  For  these  feeble 
efforts  are  not  merely  the  beginning  of  the 
development  of  the  muscles  and  the  vocal 
organs,  but  are  also  the  awakening  of  his 


The  Invisible  Bridge  95 

soul  or  inner  life.  Each  motlier  feels  this; 
some  dimly,  some  with  a  clearness  of  insight 
that  awakens  all  that  is  best  and  most  God- 
like in  the  soul  of  man. 

If  we  believe  that  God,  as  Creator  of  the 
material  universe  and  Creator  of  man,  en- 
dowed man,  as  has  already  been  stated,  with 
power  as  creator  to  re-create  and  so  adapt 
the  materials  and  forces  of  nature,  as  to 
free  himself  from  the  bondage  of  climate,  of 
space,  of  food  and  hundreds  of  other  limita- 
tions; and  that  God  also  created  man  with 
power  through  language  to  enter  by  sym- 
pathetic understanding  into  the  lives  of  his 
fellowmen  and  thereby  assist  them  in  their 
higher  spiritual  life  as  well  as  to  strengthen 
his  own  inner  life, —  if  we  believe  this,  then 
we  must  realize  the  importance  of  language, 
which  is,  truly,  the  invisible  bridge  between 
soul  and  soul. 

II 

Dr.  Hailman  in  his  translation  of  "  Edu- 
cation of  Man  "  calls  our  attention  to  the 
fact  that  mothers  and  other  attendants  of 
children  not  unfrequently  retard  thought 
by  excessive  indulgence  in  so-called  "  baby 
talk."  He  says,  "  The  child  struggles 
against  many   difficulties   of  speech,  calls 


96  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

cows,  '  tows ' ;  calves,  *  talves ' ;  bread, 
*  bed ' ;  brown,  *  bown ' ;  and  so  on.  Fond 
mothers  and  attendants  find  these  imper- 
fections of  speech  so  attractive  that  they^ 
imitate  them  and  they  are  loath  to  have 
their  children  lose  the  charming  defects  of 
babyhood.  In  the  mistaken  indulgence  of 
their  selfish  delight,  they  even  intensify 
these  faults  and  invent  new  ones,  which 
they  force  upon  the  child.  Such  inventions 
as  *  hannies '  for  hands,  '  hootsy  tootsies ' 
for  feet,  *  dinks '  for  drink,  and  other  un- 
meaning plurals  for  singular  corresponding 
forms.  In  all  cases,  it  is  the  mother's  clear 
duty  to  speak  plainly  and  correctly,  in 
order  to  aid  her  child  in  overcoming  the 
troublesome  difficulties  that  speech  in- 
volves. She  need  not  on  this  account  ad- 
dress her  child  any  less  tenderly,  soothingly 
and  fondly,  for  the  tone  means  as  much 
as  the  words. 

"  There  are  indeed  phases  of  baby  talk 
that  are  not  open  to  these  objections.  As 
soon  as  the  child  begins  his  meaningless 
monologues  of  practicing  certain  sounds, 
such  as  *  ta-ta,  ta-ta,  ta-ta,  pa-pa,  pa-pa, 
pa-pa,  da-da,  da-da,  da-da.'  Tlie  attendant 
may  join  in  these  exercises.    This  helps  the 


The  Invisible  Bridge  97 

child  to  listen  to  others  as  well  as  to  him- 
self." 

The  average  mother  comes  instinctively 
to  the  rescue.  She  repeats  any  number  of 
times  his  "  ah-ah-ah-ali-ah,  f,  f,  f,  m,  m,  m, 
gh,  gh,  gh,  gh,"  and  wisely  delights  in  his 
growth  toward  human  speech  when  she  per- 
ceives in  her  baby's  babbling  a  new  vowel 
or  consonant  or  combination  of  the  same. 
Just  as  she  has  lovingly  helped  him  to 
locate  the  different  parts  of  his  body,  by 
such  play  as  "  Where  are  baby's  toes?  Here 
they  are !  Here  they  are !  "  "  Where  are 
baby's  eyes?  "  and  so  on. 

This  is  so  universal  a  custom  that  it 
would  be  stupid  to  take  time  to  speak  of  it, 
were  it  not  for  the  far-reaching  effect  pro- 
duced by  the  right  kind  of  help  or  the  lack 
of  help.  As  already  stated,  these  first  move- 
ments of  the  face  and  body  seemingly  mean 
nothing  to  the  child.  They  are  probably  the 
mere  physical  reaction  of  the  motor  nerves 
to  the  sensory  nerves.  But  they  are  the  first 
utterance  of  the  child.  They,  the  body  and 
the  voice,  are  to  be  the  tools,  so  to  speak, 
which  will  enable  him  to  develop  his  moral, 
his  intellectual  and  his  spiritual  life.  For 
without   expression,    impression    ceases   to 


98  Unseen  Side  of  Cldld  Life 

grow.  Stop  a  moment  and  tliink  what  it  is 
that  most  helps  man  to  express  his  sym- 
pathy for  a  grief-stricken  fellow-man,  or  to 
encourage  real  effort  by  showing  true  ap- 
preciation of  it.  Is  it  not  the  power  to  say 
just  the  right  thing  at  the  right  time? 
What  is  it  that  best  strengthens  man's  char- 
acter? Is  it  not  the  resolute  will  formu- 
lated in  concise  words  that  prompts  the 
courageous  deed  or  checks  the  unrighteous 
one?  What  is  it  that  makes  clear  and  defi- 
nite the  thought?  Is  it  not  the  power  to 
express  the  thought  in  clear  and  definite 
language? 

While  the  child  is  not  yet  able  to  commu- 
nicate by  means  of  language,  the  mother 
may  in  her  play  with  him,  when  giving  him 
many  experiences  in  touching  things,  in 
hearing  new  sounds,  in  seeing  new  objects, 
etc.,  use  simple,  distinctly  pronounced 
words  that  will  help  the  mental  image  he 
is  forming.  There  are  many  pleasant  little 
games,  familiar  to  mothers,  in  which  all 
babies  delight,  because  they  help  to  distin- 
guish parts  of  their  bodies  or  objects  about 
them,  and  at  the  same  time,  they  aid  them 
in  their  effort  to  enter  this  new  world  of 
language. 


The  Invisible  Bridge  99, 

As  soon  as  the  baby  can  creep  about,  he 
begins  his  voyages  of  discovery.  He  finds 
new  objects  and  brings  them  to  his  mother 
and  puts  them  in  her  lap  and  looking  up 
with  an  eloquence  far  beyond  words, 
dumbly  asks  her  to  help  him  by  giving  him 
some  word  or  words  that  will  aid  him  in  _- 
this  difficult  task  of  learning  to  use  human 
speech.  As  stated  above,  the  mother  should 
distinctly  name  the  object  and  later  on,  add 
some  descriptive  adjective,  such  as  smooth 
table,  red  apple,  etc.  When  she  under- 
stands and  responds  to  these  questionings 
of  her  child,  how  he  loves  to  bring  each  new 
discovery  to  her,  although  she  may  be  as 
unconscious  as  the  child  of  the  fact  that  she 
is  helping  him  to  master  the  material  world 
in  order  that  he  may  live  more  freely  the 
life  of  the  spirit  in  the  immaterial  world  of 
language. 

One  of  the  dangers  of  gossiping  in  the 
presence  of  children  is  that  they  listen 
eagerly  to  the  language  of  grown-ups  with  "^ 
whom  they  are  associated  because  their 
young  souls  are  hungering  to  master  human 
speech.  But  while  they  are  attempting  to 
get  new  words  and  their  meaning  by  thus 
listening,  they  are  having  petty  views  of 


100  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

life  and  critical  attitudes  towards  neighbors 
implanted  in  their  hearts  when  they  should 
have  given  to  them  instead  a  love  for  all 
mankind  and  an  appreciation  of  every  good 
quality  that  they  can  understand,  in  order 
that  they  may  begin  through  seeing  good- 
ness in  others,  to  have  faith  in  the  Infinite 
Goodness  of  God.  "  If  you  love  not  your 
brother  whom  you  have  seen  how  can  you 
love  God  whom  you  have  not  seen?  " 

There  is  nothing  more  beautiful  in  child- 
life  than  its  loving  trustfulness,  as  a  rule, 
in  all  human  beings  whom  it  meets,  and 
there  is  nothing  which  so  helps  the  child  in 
free,  spontaneous  conversation  as  this  feel- 
ing that  everyone  he  meets  is  his  friend. 
And  nothing  hinders  more  this  beautiful 
sincerity  in  communicating  one's  thoughts 
and  desires  than  .suspicion  created  by  ill- 
natured  gossip.  Sometimes  a  child  instinc- 
tively discriminates  between  sincere  and 
insincere  people  and  withdraws  from  those 
who  are  cold  or  evil-hearted.  But  this 
instinct,  which  seems  almost  a  guardian 
angel,  may  be  terribly  injured  or  even 
destroyed  by  the  child's  hearing  those  who 
are  his  guides  belittle  people  whom  they 
receive  with  seeming  cordiality. 


The  Invisible  Bridge  101 

It  is  equally  helpful  in  the  training  of  the 
spiritual  life  of  the  child  to  use  definite  lan- 
guage as  to  the  moral  quality  of  this  or  that 
line  of  conduct.  Rather  than  say :  "  Be 
good,"  or  "  Be  a  nice  boy  while  Mamma  is 
away,"  say  instead :  "  Don't  tease  little 
sister  while  Mamma  is  away,"  or  "  Be  a 
good  boy  and  do  what  nurse  says,"  or 
"  Don't  play  in  water  in  the  bathroom  till 
Mamma  gets  home,"  or  name  whatever 
destructive  tendency  might  tempt  the  little 
fellow  during  your  absence.  Or,  better  still, 
say :  "  Help  take  care  of  little  sister," 
"  Try  to  help  nurse  keep  little  sister  from 
crying,"  or  "  Play  with  your  blocks,  ball 
and  wagon,  and  when  Mama  comes  home, 
then  we  shall  have  another  play  with  the 
water  in  the  bathroom."  This  makes  defi- 
nite the  "  do  "  rather  than  the  "  don't "  side 
of  life. 

It  is  vitally  important  that  one  should  be 
truthful  with  children.  For  them  to  learn 
that  one  can  say  one  thing  and  mean 
another  is  a  marring  of  that  sincerity  of 
character  which  is  essential  to  true  reli- 
gion. One  of  the  saddest  illustrations  of 
many  so-called  Christians  is  the  habit  of 
evading  the  disagreeable  by  vague  terms. 


102  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

They  lack  the  courage  to  tell  the  truth,  or 
to  lie  deliberately  and  be  conscious  of  the 
fact. 

I  am  speaking  of  the  training  of  the  child 
in  intelligent  speech  now,  not  of  the  ethics 
of  lying.  The  opportunity  to  help  the  child 
to  understand  and  use  aright  this  great 
medium  of  communication  with  his  fellow- 
men  comes  also  when  he  looks  at  pictures  — 
simple  pictures,  such  as  animal  or  child- 
activity,  pictures  of  home  life  or  other 
nearby  adult  activities.  Strong  but  not 
trude  coloring,  adds  to  the  attractiveness  of 
the  picture.  At  first,  pointing  to  the  object, 
animal  or  human  being,  and  calling  it  by 
name  is  sufficient.  I  know  of  one  child  to 
whom  a  dozen  pictures  of  the  animals  in 
Lincoln  Park  Zoo  had  been  given.  He 
played  with  these  pictures  until  he  was 
familiar  with  them,  and  when  he  was  four- 
teen months  old  his  mother  and  grand- 
mother took  him  to  the  Park,  and  of  course 
he  was  taken  to  the  Zoo  to  see  if  he  would 
recognize  any  of  the  animals.  Much  to  the 
astonishment  of  his  elders,  he  not  only 
pointed  out  this  or  that  animal,  but  called 
each  by  its  proper  name,  not  making  a 
single  mistake.    As  yet  he  could  not  articu- 


The  Invisible  Bridge  103 

late  a  sentence,  but  with  deliglit  he  would 
point  to  the  animals,  saying :  "  elfant," 
"  deer,"  etc.  At  the  same  time,  he  watched 
keenly  the  movements  of  these  animals  and 
later  at  home  he  tried  to  imitate  them. 

Too  many  picture  books,  however,  tend  to 
confuse  rather  than  help  the  child.  A  few 
well-selected  ones  are  better;  and  where 
some  activity  is  represented,  the  picture  is 
more  interesting  to  him  than  merely  the 
man,  cat  or  dog  standing  still. 

I  had  at  one  time  as  a  neighbor  a  dear 
little  lad  a  year  and  a  half  old.  He  had 
never  attempted  any  articulate  speech.  I 
soon  began  showing  him  pictures  as  well 
as  objects,  pronouncing  the  names  dis- 
tinctly. He  was  especially  attracted  by  a 
picture  of  a  little  girl  seated  on  a  stool 
beside  her  baby  brother's  crib.  The  baby 
was  apparently  asleep.  At  the  other  end 
of  the  picture  was  a  large  dog  that  had  just 
bounded  into  the  room.  The  little  girl  was 
holding  up  her  hand  in  warning  to  the  dog. 
My  young  friend  had  a  baby  brother  only 
a  few  weeks  old,  which  I  presume  was  the 
attraction,  as  the  picture  was  in  black  and 
white  and  in  itself  not  particularly  well 
drawn.    I  began,  of  course,  pointing  to  the 


104  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

objects  in  the  picture  saying  "girl,"  then 
"  dog,"  then  "  baby."  Soon  I  began  with 
"  baby  asleep,"  dog  says  "  bow  wow,"  little 
girl  says  "  Hus-s-sh."  In  a  few  days  the 
little  fellow  could  say  these  three  simple 
words,  especially  enjoying  the  "  hus-s-sh," 
which  I  had  dramatically  uttered. 

Over  and  over  again  he  wanted  this 
simple,  one-act  drama.  I  thus  began  intro- 
ducing him  into  the  great  world  of  lan- 
guage and  of  dramatic  expression.  About 
a  month  later  he  came  into  my  home.  I 
was  busy  and  told  him  I  could  not  play  with 
him  just  then.  He  went  to  the  table  where 
the  picture  books  were  kept  in  an  adjoin- 
ing room,  selected  the  book  which  contained 
the  above  mentioned  picture,  took  it  over  to 
his  small  table  by  the  window,  drew  up  his 
chair  and  settled  himself  with  an  air  of 
anticipated  pleasure.  He  opened  the  book, 
looked  for  a  minute  or  two  at  this  or  that 
picture,  then  turned  to  the  picture  of  the 
baby,  the  dog  and  the  girl.  He  sat  studying 
it  for  several  moments.  Then  he  said 
"  Bow  wow "  quite  gruffly.  Then  he 
raised  his  hand  warningly  and  whispered: 
"  Hus-s-sh."  His  back  was  to  the  door  and 
he  was  entirely  unconscious  of  the  fact  that 


The  Invisible  Bridge  105 

I  had  to  come  into  the  room.  He  repeated 
the  scene  several  times  with  evident  delight. 
After  that,  you  may  be  sure  we  talked  over 
other  new  pictures  and  dramatized  them. 

I  have  given  this  instance  in  detail  partly 
because  the  child  had  been  made  painfully 
self-conscious  in  his  own  home  by  hearing 
himself  discussed  by  his  elders, —  an  inju- 
rious habit  of  many  adults.  This  little 
scene  shows  that  he  had  forgotten  himself 
and  had  entered  a  new  world  where  dogs 
and  girls  and  babies  lived  and  acted.  I 
cannot  emphasize  too  much  the  injury  done 
to  children  by  their  elders  who  discuss  in 
their  presence  their  good  and  bad  traits. 
It  checks  the  child  eagerly  reaching  out  for 
the  larger  life  of  the  world  and  throws  him 
helplessly  back  into  his  own  limited  world. 

I  wanted  also  in  the  above  sketch  to  show 
how  simple  little  stories  can  easily  grow 
from  showing  a  picture  to  a  child  not  yet 
sufficiently  developed  to  follow  a  language 
story;  and  how  the  great  world  of  story- 
land  may  thus  be  opened  to  him  and  bring 
a  hundred  experiences  which  the  narrow 
life  of  the  senses  cannot  give  but  which 
that  richer  world  of  the  imagination  fur- 
nishes, adding  wealth  to  the  fast-growing 


106  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

vocabulary  of  speech,  which  will  help  him 
later  to  understand  the  plans  and  desires 
of  his  fellow-men  and  will  interpret  to  him 
religious  imagery. 

But  let  me  return  to  the  early  nursery 
stages  of  the  great  world  of  human  lan- 
guage. If  the  little  child  is  encouraged  to 
pick  out  two  or  more  objects  for  his  mother 
to  touch,  to  look  at  or  otherwise  "  to  sense  " 
as  a  part  of  the  game,  the  more  interested 
will  he  become  in  this  unconscious  language 
lesson. 

We  could  not,  if  we  wanted  to,  stop  this 
inner  life  of  the  child  in  mere  sensing  of 
the  outer  world,  but  we  can  help  or  retard 
it.  He  is  ever  striving  to  master  it,  to 
transform  it,  to  make  it  over  into  an  expres- 
sion of  himself,  of  his  inner  world  of  emo- 
tions which  rouse  action  and  awaken  rea- 
soning power  for  good  or  bad.  So  infinitely 
small  at  first  are  these  efforts,  that  we  are 
prone  to  reject  the  idea  of  their  importance. 
But  do  we  not  see  that  he  is  unwilling  to 
remain  in  a  world  of  mere  sensation?  He 
begins  to  bite  his  rubber  ring,  to  thrust  his 
finger  through  it,  even  to  try  to  put  his  toe 
through  it.  He  drops  it  on  the  floor;  you 
pick  it  up  and  he  throws  it  again  to  the  floor 


The  Invisible  Bridge  107 

and  in  a  score  of  baby  ways  tests  it  and  in 
a  score  of  baby  ways  tries  to  master  it,  even 
without  speech. 

If  we  remember  from  the  Christian  point 
of  view  that  these  efforts  are  the  "  image  of 
God  "  within  the  child,  reaching  out  to  get, 
in  some  way,  more  of  the  great  God's  uni- 
verse we  will  rejoice  in  his  ceaseless  activity. 
It  has  already  been  shown  that  the  senses 
assisted  by  language,  are  to  be  part  of  the 
training,  of  the  inner  life  of  the  child.  The 
process  is  simple.  It  is  through  the  making 
of  mental  images  of  sense-perceived  objects, 
through  the  recalling  of  these  images  at 
will,  through  transforming  them  by  means 
of  the  imagination  into  a  language  that 
speaks  to  the  spirit  that  this  training  comes. 
The  greatest  help  that  language  can  give  is 
thus  gained  by  the  power  to  use  mental 
images  for  the  expressions  of  love,  of  sym- 
pathy, of  desire  to  help,  of  the  ideals  that 
urge  us  upward  and  forward. 

So  many  thoughtless  people  speak  of 
children  being  destructive  at  this  age.  Just 
the  contrary  is  true.  Here  comes  another 
difference  between  the  child  and  a  young 
animal.  Children  are  striving  to  trans- 
form, to  create,  to  construct  with  the  mate- 


108  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

rials  about  them,  and  yet  clear  sensations 
must  come  first,  else  the  child  will  construct 
confusedly.  What  animal  does  this?  Lan- 
guage, definite  language,  clearly  pro- 
nounced, as  has  already  been  stated,  is  of 
the  greatest  help  in  aiding  the  bewildered 
little  being  sooner  to  come  into  communion 
with  intelligence  beyond  his  own. 

Let  us  remember  that  it  is  compari- 
son rather  than  sensation  that  helps  the 
child  to  go  forward  in  his  mastery  of  lan- 
guage. 

In  speaking  of  this  first  stage  in  which 
the  soul  or  inner-self  is  not  yet  conscious  of 
itself  and  does  not  separate  itself  from  the 
impressions  made  upon  it,  Froebel  in  his 
"  Education  of  Man  "  urges,  "  It  is  highly 
important  for  man's  present  and  later  life 
that  he  absorb  nothing  morbid,  low,  mean; 
nothing  ambiguous,  nothing  bad."  He  goes 
on  to  say  that  quiet  voices  and  pure  counte- 
nances are  necessary  not  merely  for  the 
physical  welfare  of  the  Infant  but  also  in 
order  that  only  the  purer,  better  emotions 
of  the  inner-self  may  be  awakened.  This 
is  but  another  example  of  the  truth  that  out 
of  the  emotional  activity  of  the  child  grows 
his  voluntary  will-activity.    What  a  child  is 


The  Invisible  Bridge  109 

interested  in,  he  willingly  does.  It  is  not 
what  he  is  coerced  into  doing  that  tells  most 
either  in  character-building  or  in  vigor  of 
mental  acquisition.  I  do  not  mean  by  this 
that  children  should  never  be  compelled  to 
obey  authority,  but  I  do  mean  that  freedom 
and  self-control  grow  best  from  voluntary 
obedience.  Coercion  is  the  surgeon's  knife 
that  must  sometimes  be  used.  Right  obedi- 
ence to  authority  is  the  salvation  of  every 
child. 

But  the  wise  understanding  of  how  to 
awaken  the  better  emotions  and  how  to  give 
the  needed  impressions  while  the  young 
mind  is  in  this  absorbing,  unresisting  stage 
is  highly  important.  It  secures  for  the 
young  child  a  quiet,  serene  and  as  undis- 
turbed infancy  as  possible,  with  proper  sur- 
roundings, obtained  often  at  the  mother's 
sacrifice  of  travel,  society  and  other  recrea- 
tion. It  also  holds  good  as  the  child  grows 
older.  I  was  reading  the  other  day  an 
article  written  by  a  famous  musician,  in 
which  he  urges  that  the  educating  of  the 
young  child's  ear  should  begin  long  before 
the  training  of  his  fingers.  He  argues  that 
a  large  amount  of  the  needless  indifference 
to  good  music,  even  hatred  of  it,  is  caused 


110  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

by  putting  the  child  to  the  practice  of  the 
technical  side  of  it  before  a  love  for  it  has 
been  awakened.  This  is  recognized  in  our 
best  schools  but  not  always  in  our  homes. 
It  is  but  one  illustration  of  the  mistakes  of 
well-meaning  mothers  and  the  worse  than 
wasted  hours  of  childhood  that  come  from 
the  lack  of  understanding  of  this  first  state- 
ment of  psychology  —  that  out  of  the 
unconscious  depths  of  the  child's  being 
come  forth  the  emotions,  impulses  and  per- 
ceptions, good  or  bad,  which  are  awakened 
by  his  surroundings  or,  psychologically 
speaking,  by  the  external  stimuli.  Is  it  not 
worth  while  then  for  any  earnest  mother 
to  know  how  to  supply  the  right  kind  of 
stimulation  for  the  awakening  of  the  right 
impulses? 

This  study  of  the  needs  of  the  inner  life 
of  the  child  is  not  so  difScult  as  it  may  seem 
to  be  to  many  young  mothers.  Sunshine, 
fresh  air,  wholesome  activities,  not  too 
much,  not  too  little,  and  affectionate  treat- 
ment are  the  first  requisites  after  the  first 
few  weeks  of  quiet  sleep.  When  we  come 
to  the  art  world  of  the  child,  we  explain  also 
the  need  of  creative  activity.  Just  now  we 
are  considering  neither  health  nor  manual 


TJiG  Invisible  Bridge  111 

activity  but  the  development  of  power  to 
communicate  by  language. 

One  of  the  reasons  why  Mother  Goose 
rhymes  are  so  popular  in  the  nursery  is  that 
most  of  the  words  are  short  Saxon  words, 
easily  pronounced.  I  had,  at  one  time, 
daily  contact  with  a  little  boy  about  two 
years  old  who,  so  far  as  his  mother  had 
observed,  had  made  no  effort  at  articulate 
speech.  I  amused  him  quite  frequently  by 
showing  him  highly  colored  pictures  in  the 
"  Mother  Goose  Rhyme  Book,"  reciting  a 
line  or  two  of  the  rhyme  as  I  pointed  to  the 
picture.  After  two  or  three  experiments  of 
this  sort,  he  caught  the  easily  pronounced 
sounds  of  "  Bo  Peep."  You  will  notice  that 
the  consonants  here  are  lip  sounds  and  the 
vowels  are  two  of  the  easiest,  "  o  "  and  "  e." 
After  the  book  was  closed  and  we  had 
turned  to  something  else,  he  continued  to 
say  "  Bo  Peep."  The  next  time  we  took  up 
the  picture  book  he  instantly  said  "  Bo 
Peep  "  and  when  I  turned  to  the  picture 
an  expression  of  intelligent  pleasure  came 
on  his  face.  I  recited  the  verse  and  he  tried 
to  follow  me.  He  succeeded  so  far  as  to  say 
"Lir  Bo  Peep."  For  days,  that  was  the 
first   picture  for   which  he  asked  and  he 


112  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

seemed  proud  to  be  able  to  designate  bj 
words  one  of  the  pictures.  As  lie  had  never 
seen  a  slieep,  had  never  seen  a  woman  cos- 
tumed as  a  shepherdess,  I  could  not  help 
feeling  that  it  was  the  smooth,  easy-sound- 
ing words  which  caught  his  attention  and 
made  him  conscious  of  the  fact  that  words 
had  meaning.  Afterwards  we  had  frequent 
recourse  to  the  simpler  "  Mother  Goose 
Rhymes." 

In  the  early  education  of  the  child  the 
Mother  Goose  words  and  rhyming  lines,  and 
oftentimes  its  excellent  pictures,  are  help- 
ful in  aiding  the  child  to  master  speech, 
until  such  time  when  the  true  poet  will  give 
us  a  more  normal  and  childlike  content 
with  equally  good  lilt  and  rhythm. 

Another  great  value  of  leading  the  child 
as  early  as  possible  into  simple  and  correct 
speech  is  that  it  enables  one  to  teach  the 
reasonableness  of  obedience  to  rational 
rules,  such  as  ought  to  govern  all  nursery 
life.  Of  course,  I  do  not  mean  abstract  laws 
but  the  necessary  requirements  of  baby  life. 
I  know  a  dear  little  three-year-old  who, 
when  offered  anything  to  eat  either  shakes 
his  head  and  says,  "  That's  not  good  for 
liT  boys,"  or  asks,  "  Is  that  good  for  li'P 


The  Invisible  Bridge  113 

boys? "  It  is  needless  to  say  how  this 
splendid  control  of  appetite  came  about  or 
how  fortunate  the  little  fellow  is  to  have 
a  mother  such  as  his.  The  kindergarten 
does  much  in  training  the  child  to  under- 
stand this  inhibition  that  is  often  necessary 
by  being  clear  and  explicit  in  her  own  use 
of  words.  Conversation  should  be  an 
important  feature  of  school  life  and  should 
not  only  be  allowed  but  encouraged,  with 
always  the  accompanying  courtesy  or  tol- 
erance which  permits  each  child  an  oppor- 
tunity to  express  his  opinion  or  relate  his 
experience  and  the  rest  to  listen  while  he 
does  so. 

How  many  an  angry  religious  contro- 
versy could  have  been  tempered  with  mild- 
ness if  the  disputants'  early  training  had 
been  such  as  to  establish  a  habit  of  toler- 
ance! Encouraging  the  child  in  courteous, 
intelligent  conversation  is  only  one  of  the 
many  advantages  of  letting  a  little  child 
associate  with  children  of  his  own  age. 
This  should  be  done  under  the  supervision 
of  adults  who  believe  that  right  habits,  con- 
sciously formed,  help  to  make  the  entrance 
into  a  life  of  self-control  over  appetite  and 
passions.     The  consciousness  of  one's  own 


114  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

invisible  power  that  self-control  brings 
comes  later  and  leads  more  readily  into  a 
faith  in  the  great,  unseen  power  that  reli- 
gion demands. 

A  little  child  instinctively  understands 
the  tone  of  voice  and  knows  when  he  may 
not  heed  and  when  he  must  obey.  I  was 
amused  by  an  instance  of  this  sort  not  long 
ago.  A  young  father  in  my  neighborhood 
was  starting  off  one  morning  to  his  business 
when  his  active  little  two-year-old  son  ran 
after  him.  He  let  the  little  fellow  follow 
him  about  fifteen  or  twenty  feet,  then  he 
turned  and  said :  "  Go  back,  Ned."  But 
he  said  it  in  a  laughing  tone  of  voice,  as  he 
was  evidently  much  amused  by  Ned's  deter- 
mination to  go  with  him  to  the  city.  He 
walked  on  and  the  child  continued  to 
follow.  Again  he  turned  and  said :  "  Go 
back,  Ned,"  and  again  walked  on,  and  the 
child  continued  to  follow.  This  was  re- 
peated once  or  twice  more  before  he  reached 
the  corner  where  a  traffic  street  had  to  be 
crossed.  The  father  then  turned  and  said 
very  seriously :  "  Ned,  go  home."  Ned 
looked  disappointed,  but  he  instantly 
turned  and  walked  slowly  back  to  his  home. 

I  happened  at  another  time  to  have  close 


The  Invisible  Bridge  115 

and  intimate  contact  with  three  very  lov- 
able little  children  in  whose  home  there 
seemed  to  be  no  law,  no  order,  no  system  of 
any  kind.  When  these  children  first  began 
coming  into  my  home,  the  mother,  a  sweet, 
lovable  woman,  told  me  I  would  have  to 
watch  them,  that  they  destroyed  everything 
they  laid  their  hands  on.  The  first  time  the 
little  boy,  less  than  two  years  of  age,  pulled 
down  from  the  table  one  of  my  books,  I 
went  to  him,  gently  and  pleasantly  taking 
the  book  from  his  hand  and  said :  "  No, 
Charlie,  my  book,"  and  at  the  same  time  I 
handed  him  a  ball  and  said :  "  Charlie's 
ball."  Then  again,  pointing  to  the  book,  I 
repeated :  "  My  book."  He  understood  and 
we  began  a  little  play  with  the  ball.  The 
next  day  the  temptation  came  again  for  the 
book  and  the  little  hand  reached  out  for  it. 
I  repeated  again  quite  firmly :  "  No,  no,  my 
book,"  and  took  his  hand  away  from  the 
book,  calling  his  attention  immediately  to 
some  object  with  which  he  was  allowed  to 
play.  Within  a  week  I  was  able  to  trust 
the  child  where  books  were  on  the  open 
shelves,  lying  on  the  library  table  and  some- 
times on  the  window  sills,  and  he  made  not 
the  slightest  effort  to  disturb  any  of  them. 


116  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

After  playing  heartily  and  freely  with  my 
toys,  these  children  learned  to  pick  up  the 
playthings  and  put  them  away  or  when  I 
told  them  it  was  time  to  go  home,  or,  occa- 
sionally, when  a  guest  came  in  and  they 
knew  that  would  end  our  play  together, 
they  would  gather  up  the  playthings  and 
quietly  leave. 

Ill 
In  his  book  "  What  Can  Literature  Do 
for  Me,"  Dr.  Alphonso  Smith  tells  us  of 
Lincoln's  effort  even  when  a  boy  to  make 
every  new  idea  that  came  to  him  first  clear 
to  himself  and  then  he  could  not  rest  satis- 
fied until  he  had  put  it  into  language  plain 
enough  for  any  boy  to  understand.  Dr. 
Smith  adds  that  it  was  this  acquired  habit 
of  Lincoln  which  made  him  a  leader  among 
men,  because  he  was  able  to  say  in  his 
letters  and  speeches  what  other  men  were 
beginning  to  feel  but  could  not  express.  In 
his  immortal  address  at  Gettysburg,  last- 
ing less  than  five  minutes,  in  which  he  dedi- 
cated the  field  of  the  dead  soldiers,  he  enno- 
bled the  emotions  and  comforted  the  hearts 
of  tens  of  thousands  of  sorrowing  fathers 
and  mothers  and  wives  by  a  few  simple, 
tender   words.     This   speech   alone   would 


The  Invisible  Bridge  117 

have  made  him  immortal  if  he  had  done 
naught  else  in  the  winning  of  the  war.  So 
great  is  the  power  of  the  mastery  of  lan- 
guage when  a  truly  noble  soul  speaks  in  an 
exalted  moment.  Dr.  Smith  has  so  admir- 
ably worded  this  thought  in  the  inspiring 
book  referred  to  above  that  I  take  the  lib- 
erty to  quote  him  more  fully :  "  When  lit- 
erature holds  before  us  the  vision  of  the 
ideal,  it  points  us  to  the  future;  when  it 
gives  us  a  more  sympathetic  insight  into 
men  and  women  with  whom  our  lot  is  cast, 
it  points  us  to  the  present ;  when  it  restores 
to  us  the  men  and  events  long  since  van- 
ished, it  points  us  to  the  past.  It  has  three 
tenses  because  human  nature  has  three 
tenses,  each  tense  is  an  outlet. 

"  No  power  of  the  poet  gives  me  a  greater 
feeling  of  awe  than  that  by  which  he  says 
to  oblivion :  *  Hitherto  shalt  thou  come  but 
no  further  and  here  shall  thy  proud  waves 
be  stayed.'  The  enemies  that  man  has 
fought  most  persistently  from  the  begin- 
ning are  death  and  oblivion.  He  fights 
death  with  science;  he  fights  oblivion  most 
successfully  with  literature.  The  historian 
may  galvanize  the  past  but  tlie  poet  vital- 
izes it.    The  great  deeds  of  the  heroic  dead 


118  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

are  preserved  in  annals  and  chronicles,  but 
they  live  in  song  and  story.  Enshrine  his- 
tory in  literature  and  you  give  it  both  cur- 
rency and  permanency.  We  often  speak  of 
*  the  irrevocable  past '  but  to  literature 
there  is  no  irrevocable  past.  Literature 
cannot  only  recall  the  past,  but  can  make 
of  it  an  ever-living  present." 

It  is  only  when  we  understand  the 
important  part  which  language  plays  in 
the  development  of  the  higher  relationships 
of  life  that  we  can  understand  what  is 
meant  by  the  words,  "  Man  is  made  in  the 
image  of  God."  Does  not  that  great  revela- 
tion mean  that  we  have  this  power  of  enter- 
ing one  into  the  life  of  another,  of  helping 
to  develop  the  nobler  impulses,  to  encourage 
the  weak  faith,  to  define  the  ofttimes  con- 
fused conception  of  what  is  duty  to  man 
and  what  is  worship  of  God? 


THE  CHILD'S  ART  WORLD 

I 

Antiquarians  in  their  discoveries  of 
towns  and  cities,  so  ancient  that  we  know 
not  of  their  origin,  tell  us  that  they  come 
upon  children's  toys,  such  as  dolls,  toy  ani- 
mals, etc.,  that  must  have  been  used  by  chil- 
dren in  those  ancient  times.  Again,  there 
is  recorded  in  the  tombs  of  Egypt  and  on 
the  vases  of  early  Greece,  pictures  of  chil- 
dren playing  and  dancing.  I  know  of  no 
records  concerning  the  habits  of  the  early 
races  of  mankind  that  do  not  speak  of  the 
child-like  play  of  the  adult  in  their  day. 
Old  Homer  gives  us  a  charming  picture  of 
Nausicaa  and  her  maidens  playing  ball 
after  a  hard  day  of  labor.  Plato  in  his 
"  Republic  "  realizes  the  educational  value 
of  play  to  the  extent  that  he  urges  public 
playgrounds  for  the  children  and  free 
instructors  to  be  with  them,  in  order  that 
they  might  learn  —  by  being  active  and  at 
the  same  time  obedient  to  the  laws  of  the 
game  —  that  obedience  is  an  essential 
thing. 

119 


120  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

The  twelfth-  and  thirteenth-century 
painters,  picturing  Paradise,  represented 
angel  children  as  at  play,  sometimes  tossing 
flowers,  sometimes  flying  about,  sometimes 
singing  with  all  their  hearts,  sometimes  per- 
forming on  musical  instruments  and  some- 
times just  simply  playing.  Luther  took  the 
Christmas  festival  out  of  the  church  and 
put  it  into  the  home  with  the  Christmas  tree 
and  the  Christmas,  plays  and  games.  Tur- 
ner, the  English  painter,  in  his  great  pic- 
ture, "  The  Fall  of  Carthage,"  has  some 
innocent-looking  and  happy  little  children 
in  the  foreground  playing  at  ship-building 
and  rope-making  in  imitation  of  their 
elders,  who  were  vainly  striving  to  save  the 
city.  Jean  Paul  Eichter  and  many  of  the 
poets  and  thinkers  have  exalted  play  as  a 
beautiful  and  significant  expression  of 
child-life.  In  fact,  it  would  be  hard  to  con- 
ceive of  child-life,  when  not  tyrannized  over, 
as  existing  without  some  form  of  play.  Tlie 
mere  fact  that  child-play  has  been  univer- 
sally recognized  shows  it  to  be  a  natural 
and  normal  activity  of  the  young  human 
being.  Genetic  psychology  shows  that  the 
play  of  animals  seems  to  be  a  rudimentary 


The  Child's  Art  World  121 

preparation  for  the  higher  use  of  the 
muscles. 

I  had  an  acquaintance  who  was  a  teacher 
in  interpretative  and  fancy  dancing  and 
who  spent  most  of  her  time  when  at  the 
World's  Fair  in  Chicago,  watching  the 
trained  animal  show.  She  said  she  learned 
more  from  the  graceful  coordination  of  the 
muscles  of  the  lions,  leopards  and  foxes 
than  all  of  her  previous  training  had  given 
her. 

The  ethical  benefit  as  well  as  the  physical 
value  of  the  right  kind  of  play  has  been 
recognized  by  educators  who  are  thinkers. 

The  great  period  of  intellectual  activity 
which  brought  forth  Fichte,  Shelling, 
Hegel,  Beethoven,  Hannaman,  and  Sweden- 
borg  also  brought  forth  the  great  poet 
Schiller,  who  seems  to  have  summed  up  the 
insight  of  that  era  in  his  famous,  but  to 
many  people  mystical  saying,  "  Deep  mean- 
ing often  lies  in  childish  play."  But  it 
remained  for  Frederick  Froebel  to  organize 
definitely  and  to  utilize  play  as  the  chief 
element  in  educating  and  developing  char- 
acter during  the  earliest  periods  of  child- 
life  as  well  as  to  sliow  it  as  a  "  spiritual 
activity  "'  in  this  period  of  the  child's  devel- 


122  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

opment.  FroebePs  persistent  and  insistent 
demand  for  play  as  a  part  of  education  has 
developed  a  play  period  in  elementary 
grades  and  children's  playgrounds  in  our 
large  parks.  In  fact,  the  first  regular  play- 
ground ever  established  was  in  the  Tier- 
garten  in  Berlin,  through  the  influence  of 
the  English  wife  of  Emperor  Frederick. 
She  was  an  ardent  advocate  of  the  kinder- 
garten, and  a  real  lover  of  little  children. 
"  Parental  environment  "  is  a  term  coined 
by  recent  writers  to  define  the  subtle,  uncon- 
scious influence  in  the  home  which  arises 
from  a  parents'  psychological  view  of  a 
child's  needs,  and  is  not  to  be  confused  with 
the  ideas  of  material  environment  which  all 
well-meaning  parents  strive  to  provide  for 
their  children.  In  other  words,  this  new 
term  refers  to  the  father's  and  mother's  gen- 
eral attitude  of  love  and  solicitude  for,  or 
of  indifference  to  and  neglect  of,  the  needs 
of  a  child's  inner  life.  This  kind  of  a  psy- 
chological environment  can  only  be  sup- 
plied by  intelligent  parents,  especially  while 
the  young  child  is  in  the  plastic  stage  of 
infancy  and  early  childhood.  All  orphan 
asylums,  no  matter  how  well  conducted, 
show  the  lack  of  this  parental  environment. 


The  Child's  Art  World  123 

It  cannot  be  given  to  children  en  masse. 

Nowhere  is  this  intangible  but  ever- 
present  influence  more  to  be  reckoned  with 
than  in  the  mother's  attitude  toward  her 
child's  play.  If  she  looks  upon  her  child  as 
a  creature  living  solely  in  a  world  of  sense- 
impress  ions  ^  she  will  inevitably  lead  him 
into  the  kind  of  play  in  which  exercises  for 
the  body  and  senses  predominate.  If  she 
regards  him  as  an  Ego  or  spirit  of  which 
his  body  is  the  chief  instrument  or  tool,  she 
will  just  as  inevitably  encourage  him  in  the 
kind  of  play  in  which  self-expression  is 
emphasized.  Even  in  the  earliest  nursery 
plays  this  distinction  begins.  I  have  seen 
fathers  tease  infants  until  the  fighting 
instinct  brought  every  muscle  into  play. 

For  our  present  purpose  it  is  sufficient 
for  us  to  observe  the  three  forms  of  play 
that  are  most  easily  understood. 

The  first  is  right  exercise  of  the  body, 
such  as  jumping,  hopping,  running,  skip- 
ping and  various  other  seemingly  aimless 
activities;  but  these  are  not  without  pur- 
pose, for  they  are  in  reality  helping  the 
child  to  master  his  muscles.  This  form  of 
play  has  been  described  in  a  preceding 
chapter  in  this  book. 


124  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

In  the  schools  this  kind  of  play  at  the 
present  time  takes  the  form  of  dancing  or 
rhythmic  gymnastic  exercises,  which  a 
witty  friend  of  mine  has  called  "  sterilized 
dancing."  In  the  home  life,  little  songs  are 
used  in  which  the  child  keeps  time,  chant- 
ing an  easily  rhymed  poem  committed  to 
memory;  and  in  the  present-day  use  of  vic- 
trolas,  children  can  learn  much  that  is 
valuable  by  the  use  of  a  few  simple  melo- 
dies for  dance  steps  that  awaken  only 
happy  emotions.  I  once  heard  Miss 
Frances  Willard  laughingly  tell  that  she 
learned  to  dance  by  her  mother  clapping 
time  as  she  sang  a  hymn  tune  while  she  and 
her  sister  kept  step  to  the  clapping.  In 
that  day,  dancing  was  strictly  prohibited 
in  the  Methodist  Church  but  the  wise 
mother  saw  to  it  that  little  Frances  and 
her  sister  should  have  graceful  and  rhyth- 
mic use  of  their  bodies. 

The  second  form  of  ^lay  includes  the 
beginning  of  the  child's  mastery  of  the 
material  world  about  him.  He  is  trying  to 
understand  the  secrets  of  materials  and  to 
discover  and  create  new  forms.  For  exam- 
ple, he  tries  to  find  the  possibilities  of  his 
ball;  he  rolls  and  tosses  and  throws  and 


The  CMlcVs  Art  World  125 

bounces  it.  In  a  like  manner  he  tests  other 
objects  about  him.  Later  the  kindergarten 
provides  the  opportunity  for  his  full  and 
free  expression  in  the  use  of  many  kinds  of 
materials  and  aids  him  in  creative  self-ex- 
pression through  them. 

The  third  form  of  play,  which  is  dramatic 
play,  may  be  expressed  in  the  words  of 
Schiller  already  quoted,  viz.,  "  Deep  mean- 
ing often  lies  in  childish  play."  This 
thought  is  the  main  basis  of  Froebel's 
system  of  the  play-school.  It  is  the  child's 
ejfort  to  understand  the  activities  of  life 
about  him,  and  in  a  childish  way  to  feel  the 
emotions  which  cause  these  activities. 

"  Play  is  the  highest  point  of  human 
development  in  the  child-stage,  for  it  is  the 
tree  expression  of  the  child's  inner  being. 
Play  is  at  once  the  purest  and  most  spir- 
itual product  of  the  human  being  at  this 
stage.  It  is  a  type  and  copy  of  all  human 
life,  of  the  inward  natural  life  that  is  in 
man  and  in  all  things;  and  it  brings  forth 
joy,  freedom,  contentment,  rest  within  and 
without  and  peace  with  the  world." 

Because  play  with  the  materials  of  the 
world  about  him  helps  the  child  to  express 
his   inner   freedom   and   contentment,   and 


126  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

because  in  dramatic  play  he  reproduces  the 
activities  of  animal  and  human  life  which 
add  to  the  joy  of  the  child  as  quoted  above, 
we  call  play  the  art  world  of  the  child. 
Because  all  true  art  is  the  result  of  the 
human  soul's  adequate  expression  of  its 
emotions  in  some  form  which  will  awaken 
corresponding  emotions  in  others. 

II 

Having  already  dwelt  at  length  on  the 
mere  play  of  the  body,  let  us  consider  more 
fully  the  child's  "  creative  play,"  keeping  in 
mind  the  most  important  message  that  the 
founder  of  the  Christian  religion  brought  to 
mankind,  namely,  that  God  is  our  Father 
and  we  are  His  children.  All  the  rest  of 
true  religion  is  included  in  this.  We  believe 
that  the  child  has  an  immortal  life  of  the 
Spirit,  which,  if  trained  aright,  not  only 
sweetens  and  makes  helpful  and  harmoni- 
ous this  life  here  on  earth  but  prepares  him. 
on  entering  the  next  stage  of  existence,  to 
begin  it  in  a  form  of  life  nearer  the  Divine 
purpose.  If  we  have  this  genuine  Christian 
religion  we  will  rejoice  to  help  forward  the 
lovable  and  more  Christ-like  characteristics 
of  every   child.     A  profound  thinker  has 


The  Child's  Art  World  127 

said,  "  It  takes  the  recognition  of  all  that  is 
hest  in  all  humanity  to  give  us  some  faint 
comprehension  of  the  nature  of  the  great 
Eternal  Creator  of  the  Universe  whom 
Jesus  taught  us  to  call  ^  Our  Father/ ''  We 
are  taught  that  God  created  the  Universe 
and  created  man,  giving  him  a  creative 
power  far  beyond  that  of  any  animal.  Dogs 
and  horses  and  some  other  animals  can  be 
trained  into  a  few  tricks  and  even  show 
some  intelligent  understanding  of  the  com- 
mands of  their  masters.  But  no  dog  or 
horse  ever  built  a  fire,  no  animal  has  ever 
invented  a  machine,  built  a  ship,  or  discov- 
ered the  law  of  aviation.  No  animal  has 
ever  erected  a  temple,  carved  a  statue, 
painted  a  picture,  written  a  poem  or  com- 
posed a  symphony.  No  animal  has  ever 
worked  the  miracles  that  synthetic  chem- 
istry is  now  creating.  No  animal  has  ever 
developed  any  of  the  great  sciences,  such  as 
geology,  medicine,  surgery  and  the  like. 
Therefore  we  have  the  right  to  say  that  man 
is  the  created  being  who  has  been  given  cre- 
ative power.  Stop  and  think  on  the  far 
sweep  of  thought  into  which  this  takes  us. 
The  Christian  religion  claims  that  we  are 
children  of  God  —  surely  not  in  form,  with 


128  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

legs,  arms,  torso,  etc.  Is  it  not  because  of 
the  power  to  transform  and  make  over  the 
world  about  us,  to  level  mountains  and 
build  up  valleys,  to  turn  the  course  of 
rivers  and  unite  ocean  with  ocean  and  to 
perform  other  and  mightier  deeds,  trans- 
forming and  transcending  our  limitations  of 
temperament  and  character,  that  we  are 
called  "  children  of  God  "? 

The  more  we  dwell  upon  the  achievement 
of  man's  creative  power  the  easier  it  is  to 
think  of  him  as  partaking  of  the  nature  of 
the  Infinite  Creator,  and  in  reality  being 
a  child  of  God.  There  are  greater  reasons 
than  this  which  will  be  given  later.  With 
this  marvelous  thought  of  man's  power  to 
create  let  us  turn  to  the  nursery  and  to 
what  we  may  call  its  "  creative  play." 

Was  it  not  Aristotle  who  first  made  use 
of  the  term  "  Time  arts  and  space  arts,"  the 
former  including  music,  poetry  and  danc- 
ing, or  the  rhythmical  motion  of  the  body, 
the  latter  including  architecture,  sculpture 
and  painting?  Each  of  these  arts  has  its 
place  in  the  development  of  the  human  race, 
through  the  appeal  which  beauty  makes  to 
the  soul,  and  each  of  them  serves  to  enrich 
and  to  ennoble  the  child's  life  and  may  be 


The  Child's  Art  World  129 

given  in  such  a  way  that  the  child  learns 
gradually  to  love  them  more  and  more. 

A  taste  for  each  of  these  arts  may  begin 
in  the  nursery  and  can  there  be  fostered  and 
developed  to  a  much  larger  extent  than  the 
average  mother  realizes.  The  little  one's 
building  blocks  may  be  well  proportioned, 
his  rag  doll  may  be  pretty  instead  of  ugly ; 
materials  which  he  may  take  apart  and  put 
together  in  some  new  way  are  far  more 
stimulating  than  ready-made  mechanical 
toys.  His  picture  books  may  have  to  be  few 
in  number  but  the  pictures  may  be  well 
drawn  and  may  be  bright  in  color  but  not 
gaudy.  If  carefully  handled  with  freshly 
washed  hands,  and  respectfully  used  they 
last  a  long  time.  As  for  poetry  and  danc- 
ing, all  little  children  love  rhythmic  sound 
and  easily  respond  to  melody.  The  right 
kind  of  education  includes  not  only  the  head 
to  think  or  the  hand  to  work  and  the  heart 
to  love,  but  it  also  includes  the  careful, 
thoughtful  and  abundant  training  of  each 
child  into  a  love  of  beauty,  in  order  that  the 
richer  realm  of  imagination  may  be  his  as 
well  as  the  realm  of  fact  and  of  thought. 

Through  sense-impressions  are  awakened 
the  emotion,  desire  or  understanding  which 


130  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

the  child  wishes  to  express.  Oftentimes 
this  awakened  effort  at  expression  is  so 
crude  or  inadequate  that  only  the  most  sym- 
pathetic soul  can  recognize  it.  I  was  pres- 
ent one  Christmas  day  when  a  little  two- 
year-old,  who  had  been  much  impressed  by 
the  excitement  of  the  giving  of  Christmas 
gifts  at  breakfast  time,  after  a  couple  of 
hours  of  refreshing  sleep  began  to  re-enact 
the  scene  as  she  understood  it.  She  tore  off 
a  piece  of  the  newspaper  that  lay  in  her 
mother's  lap  and  crumpled  it  into  a  small 
wad;  going  solemnly  up  to  her  father  she 
handed  him  the  bit  of  crumpled  paper  and 
said  "  Dat's  pencil  for  oo !  "  Then  repeat- 
ing the  crumpling  up  of  another  scrap  of 
paper  she  presented  it  to  her  mother  as  a 
box  of  candy.  Again  another  piece  of  paper 
became  a  doll,  and  still  another  a  handker- 
chief, and  so  on,  until  each  person  in  the 
room  had  received  some  object  which  the 
child  had  been  given  in  the  morning.  For- 
tunately the  family  were  all  sympathetic 
and  thanked  her  duly  for  her  gifts.  She  was 
in  the  world  of  imagination  and  as  she  was 
too  immature  to  understand  the  real  signifi- 
cance of  the  morning's  activities,  she  was 
trying   to   express   the   impression   it   had 


The  Child's  Art  World  131 

made  on  her  and  thereby  to  get  a  better 
idea  of  it.  It  was  not  the  object  given  but 
the  joy  of  the  giving  that  had  impressed  her. 
Not  consciously  but  instinctively  she  was 
striving  to  enlarge  her  life  so  as  to  take  in 
what  had  so  pleased  the  rest  of  the  family, 
and  either  ridicule  or  indifference  would 
have  pained  her  and  would  have  seriously 
retarded  her  efforts  at  self-expression  of  the 
emotion  that  had  stirred  her. 

This  is  an  illustration  of  the  early  stage 
of  what  for  the  lack  of  a  better  term  I  have 
called  "  creative  play."  By  the  word  "  cre- 
ative "  I  mean  the  putting  of  an  emotion, 
desire  or  impression,  enriched  by  the  child's 
imagination,  into  some  form  that  may  be 
recognized  by  the  senses,  using  as  the  means 
of  expression  any  object  or  material  near 
at  hand  that  the  child  can  change  or  trans- 
form. With  the  aid  of  sand,  mud,  clay, 
water,  blocks  of  wood,  sticks,  rings,  paper, 
chalk  pencil,  a  tube  of  paste  and  scissors 
or  other  simple  tools  to  help,  this  may  be 
accomplished.  All  these  and  any  addition 
of  nature  materials,  such  as  stones  on  the 
sea  shore,  new  mown  hay,  autumn's  dead 
leaves,  in  fact  almost  any  transformable 
material,  may  become  a  treasure  to  a  child's 


132  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

young  eyes.  Often  tliey  are  things  that  are 
trash  to  our  eyes  because  we  have  allowed 
our  hearts  to  grow  old  and  our  eyes  to 
become  dim  as  to  the  needs  of  little  children. 

The  thought  I  wish  to  emphasize  is  that 
a  child  should  have  materials  about  him 
which  he  may  easily  re-arrange  or  transform 
into  some  new  form  with  which  his  imagina- 
tion for  the  time  being  may  be  busy.  One 
point  of  resemblance  is  oftentimes  sufiflcient. 

A  few  boards  on  the  crooked  branches  of 
a  tree  may  become  a  robber's  hiding  place 
or  a  king's  throne  according  as  the  child's 
imagination  has  been  fed.  I  have  seen  a 
newspaper  cap  transform  a  child's  every- 
day clothing  into  a  military  uniform,  some 
easily  molded  clay  furnish  all  that  was 
needed  for  an  entire  banquet,  three  chairs 
in  a  row  become  a  train  starting  for  New 
York,  and  so  on. 

"  Science  has  given  us  a  new  universe  not 
more  marvelous  in  its  vastness  than  in  its 
unity.  For  the  spectroscope  has  shown  that 
everywhere  through  immeasurable  space  the 
same  chemical  properties  and  laws  obtain. 
The  telescope  has  revealed  with  what  math- 
ematical precision  the  orbits  of  the  heavens 
are  traced  and  how  unwaveringly  here  and 


The  Child's  ^Art  ^Yorld  133 

among  the  stars  gravitation  maintains  its 
hold.  Man  never  had  so  immense  and  yet 
so  varied  a  world  before.  Polytheism  once 
was  possible,  but  science  has  banished  it 
forever."  * 

May  not  this  advance  toward  unity  — 
notwithstanding  the  immensity  of  variety 
which  science  reveals  —  lead  to  a  more 
thorough  understanding  of  the  value  of  pre- 
senting a  project  to  a  child,  or  accepting 
his  project  and  helping  him  to  work  out 
a  plan  which  shall  definitely  lead  him  to 
discover  the  possibilities  and  the  limitations 
of  material  and  thereby  learn  the  laws  of 
construction?  This  will  quicken  his  cre- 
ative ability  and  energize  his  power  to  exe- 
cute a  plan,  until  a  universe  with  self-evi- 
dent laws  in  all  its  manifestations  —  and 
yet  without  a  Law-Maker — will  be  banished 
forever. 

The  League  of  Cook  County, —  including 
Chicago  Women's  Clubs, —  in  their  research 
work  concerning  the  beginnings  of  educa- 
tion, report  among  other  things  that  they 
have  been  surprised  and  pleased  by  the 
readiness  with  which  young  children  learn 

•  Dr.  Harry  Emerson  Fosdick  in  "  The  Meaning  of 
Faith." 


134  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

the  laws  of  construction  and  apply  them  in 
constructive  activities  in  ways  that  have 
heretofore  been  considered  far  beyond  the 
concepts  of  the  child-mind.  This  is  an  ad- 
vanced step  in  both  nursery  and  elementary 
school  education  —  long  ago  realized  by 
kindergartners,  but  now  being  reaffirmed  by 
non-professional  research  workers.  Tliis  is 
from  the  side  of  man  as  a  creative  being 
whose  possibilities  are  only  beginning  to  be 
discerned. 

Now  let  us  turn  to  the  hopeful  aspect  of 
the  other  end  of  the  proposition. 

The  recent  appointment  of  Professor 
Maurice  De  Wulf  to  the  newly  created  chair 
of  scholastic  philosophy  at  Harvard  indi- 
cates that  a  new  era  in  the  annals  of  great 
universities  of  America  has  begun.  Let  us 
hope  that  other  great  universities  will  fol- 
low Harvard's  example.  For  scholastic 
philosophy  teaches  that  at  the  center  of  the 
universe  is  one  great  creative  power  desig- 
nated as  "  God  the  Father."  ^  This  does  not 
demand  that  we  accept  all  of  St.  Thomas 
Aquinas'  theology. 

Of  course,  much  fun  has  been  made  of 
some  of  the  old  monks  arguing  as  to  how 
many   angels  —  immaterial  beings  —  could 


The  Child's  Art  World  135 

dance  on  the  point  of  a  needle  —  a  limited 
bit  of  space  in  the  material  world,  etc.,  etc. 
My  point  is  that  Harvard,  which  was  the 
first  university  in  America  to  demand  that 
science  be  given  a  place  in  university  courses 
of  study  equal  to  the  place  given  to  the 
classics  —  even  while  science  was  asserting 
that  the  conflict  of  material  "  forces  "  caused 
the  creation  of  the  universe,  and  such  books 
as  Draper's  "  Conflict  between  Science  and 
Religion  "  were  pronouncing  the  Christian 
Religion  a  mere  traditional  superstition  — 
that  this  great  University  is  now  placing 
side  by  side  the  marvels  of  scientific  research 
and  the  historic  and  theological  bases  of 
Christian  faith. 

It  was,  I  think,  with  this  thought  in  mind 
that  Frederick  Froebel  invented  his  "Gifts." 
He  realized  that  clear-cut  sensations  were 
the  starting  point  by  means  of  which  the 
mind  of  man  begins  to  climb  toward  univer- 
sal thought,  and  that  mathematics  has  to  do 
with  each  material  object,  and  yet  the 
science  of  matliematics  is  in  itself  universal, 
immaterial  and  tremendously  creative  when 
once  mastered.  He  therefore  suggested  put- 
ting among  the  child's  playthings  objects 
which  helped  the  child  to  see  that  rounded 


136  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

objects  move  readily  and  rectilinear  objects 
remain  stationary.  Also  to  learn  the  differ- 
ence between  horizontal,  vertical  and  slant- 
ing surfaces,  positions  of  surfaces  and 
straight  and  curved  lines.  So  convinced 
was  he  of  the  value  of  these  and  similar 
mathematical  concepts  that  he  called  his 
"Fourth  Gift"  "The  Doorway  to  Archi- 
tecture "  because  by  building  with  these  ob- 
long blocks  the  child  learned  to  notice  the 
relative  value  of  the  blocks  placed  in  a  per- 
pendicular and  in  horizontal  positions  and 
thus  began  to  feel  dimly  the  right  propor- 
tion between  the  uplifting  and  down-bearing 
principles  that  underlie  all  beautiful  archi- 
tecture. His  one  thought  in  all  his  work 
was  to  bring  the  soul  of  man  nearer  and 
nearer  to  feel  the  unity  of  all  creation  with 
God  as  its  Creator.  This  is  why  he  placed 
religion  as  the  first  and  most  important  sub- 
ject in  his  plan  of  education.* 

Undoubtedly  Froebel  was  too  abstract 
and  too  technical  in  his  demands  and  still 
more  undoubtedly  we,  his  followers,  have 
almost  destroyed  his  original  thought  in  our 
zeal  and  have  crowded  into  the  two  precious 
years  between  four  and  six  much  that  was 

•  See  "  Education  of  Man,"  paragraph  60. 


The  Child's  Art  World  137 

intendent  to  have  begun  in  infancy  and  to 
have  extended  to  the  eighth  or  ninth  year. 
For  the  sake  of  the  hand  work  we  have  in 
the  past  omitted,  much  of  the  wonder-world 
of  Nature  which  feeds  all  that  is  poetic  in 
the  child's  heart  and  awakens  his  reverence 
for  the  unseen  power  which  manifests  itself 
in  all  out-of-door  life. 

However,  it  must  be  kept  in  mind  that  the 
creative  use  of  materials  has  an  important 
place  in  the  development  of  the  child,  and 
that  the  early  discovery  of  the  fundamental 
laws  which  govern  the  right  use  of  materials 
saves  time  and  temper,  and  awakens  the 
mind  to  logical  thought  upon  which  rational 
religion  is  based.  Mere  blundering  ahead 
with  the  wrong  use  of  material  or  with  pur- 
poses that  are  of  no  real  value  is  one  of  the 
most  materialistic  forms  of  the  reaction 
against  mathematical  exactness  of  the  Froe- 
bel  material. 

Toys  were  excluded  from  the  early  kin- 
dergartens and  have  been  used  in  excess  in 
some  of  the  later  kindergartens.  They  have 
their  place  in  the  child-world.  They  are  the 
means  of  guiding  his  affections  and  thoughts 
in  right  directions  and  they  lead  him  into  an 
appreciation  of  the  work  of  others  in  the 


138  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

great  world  of  industry  and  art.  But  they 
should  be  simple,  strong  and  as  artistic  as 
circumstances  will  allow. 

Let  me  illustrate  by  an  experience  of  my 
own  how  easy  and  simple  a  thing  it  is  to 
awaken  and  satisfy  a  child's  desire  for  new 
experience  with  which  to  enlarge  his  inner 
life  by  some  creative  play,  even  if  it  must 
be  in  the  world  of  imagination  instead  of 
with  actual  human  experience  in  the  world 
about  him.  Similar  experiences  are  com- 
mon occurrences  in  the  life  of  any  kinder- 
garten-trained woman. 

While  on  a  railway  journey  not  long  ago, 
I  became  much  interested  in  a  young  mother 
who  was  traveling  alone  with  two  small  chil- 
dren. She  looked  weary,  as  the  demands 
which  the  two  active  little  creatures  made 
upon  her  were  incessant.  I  motioned  to  the 
older,  a  bright  little  fellow  four  years  of 
age,  to  come  over  to  my  seat  and  see  my 
flowers.  In  a  short  time,  having  discovered 
that  he  was  accustomed  to  gardens,  I  made 
the  suggestion  that  he  should  play  he  was 
a  gardener,  planting  flowers  in  a  park. 
The  iron  lattice  work,  which  protected  the 
steam  pipe  near  the  floor  of  the  car,  was 
selected  for  the  park.    For  a  time  he  was 


The  Child's  Art  World  139 

greatly  entertained  by  sticking  the  flowers, 
one  at  a  time,  in  the  open  lattice-work,  occa- 
sionally calling  my  attention  to  this  or  that 
arrangement  of  them. 

At  last,  tiring  of  this,  he  said,  "  Now  that 
will  do,  I  guess  I  will  go  back  to  Mama." 
I  glanced  across  the  aisle  and  saw  that  the 
baby  had  gone  to  sleep,  and  that  the  tired 
mother  was  just  closing  her  eyes,  so  I  felt 
that  my  services  were  still  needed.  I  turned 
to  the  boy  and  said,  "  If  you  go  away,  I 
must  get  a  new  gardener.  Will  you  be  kind 
enough  to  stay  and  teach  this  new  gardener 
how  to  take  care  of  the  garden?  I  am 
afraid  he  does  not  even  know  the  names  of 
the  flowers."  Then  I  tore  a  bit  of  paper  in 
the  shape  of  a  man  and  handed  it  to  the 
child.  He  was  much  pleased  by  being  given 
the  position  of  authority  with  his  supposed 
superior  knowledge  that  this  phase  of  the 
play  implied.  He  at  once  assumed  the  role 
and  for  ten  minutes  or  more  was  happily 
engaged  in  instructing  his  successor.  At 
the  end  of  that  time  he  began  to  glance 
uneasily  toward  his  sleeping  mother.  I  saw 
that  he  had  exhausted  his  imagination  along 
that  line,  and  that  it  was  now  time  to  change 
the  play,  so  taking  another  piece  of  paper. 


140  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

I  folded  it  quickly  into  the  shape  of  a  house 
and  then  placed  it  on  the  window-sill  and 
said,  "  Here  is  the  new  gardener's  house  on 
the  top  of  this  hill.  Do  you  suppose  you 
could  get  a  painter  to  come  and  paint  the 
gardener's  house? "  I  spoke  as  if  much 
perplexed  by  the  problem.  "  I'll  be  the 
painter,"  he  exclaimed  joyfully.  This,  of 
course,  was  what  I  had  expected. 

The  change  from  sitting  on  the  floor  to 
standing  by  the  window  rested  him  physi- 
cally and  the  change  of  thought  refreshed 
him  mentally.  I  twisted  a  small  fragment 
of  paper  into  a  paint  brush  and  showed  him 
how  to  play  that  his  nearly  closed  left  hand 
could  be  the  paint-pot.  Later  on  we  made 
a  chair  for  the  gardener  to  sit  on  when  he 
was  tired.  Then  we  created  a  bed  for  him 
to  sleep  on,  I  making  each  object  very  slowly 
and  carefully  at  first  and  then  taking  the 
pieces  apart  and  showing  the  child  how  to 
make  it.  When  the  play  of  painter  began 
to  flag,  we  made  a  hoe  and  a  rake  and  a 
garden  house  to  keep  them  in.  With  very 
little  trouble  I  kept  him  pleasantly  and  cre- 
atively occupied  for  nearly  an  hour  and  all 
the  materials  needed  were  a  few  half  with- 
ered flowers  and  one  or  two  advertisement 


The  Child's  Art  World  141 

leaves  from  the  back  of  a  magazine.  The 
look  of  gratitude  which  came  to  me  from 
the  mother  when  she  opened  her  eyes  more 
than  repaid  me  for  the  slight  effort  I  had 
made. 

What  I  was  in  reality  doing  was  not 
merely  entertaining  the  boy  but  helping  him 
to  utilize  his  creative  power  in  arranging 
the  flower  garden  and  constructing  the  gar- 
dener's house,  bed  and  chair  and  by  means 
of  his  imagination  to  enter  into  the  human 
activity  of  house  painter.  This  may  seem 
only  a  device  to  the  average  reader,  but  to 
the  kindergartner  it  was  helping  him  to 
enlarge  his  conception  of  life  by  thus  enter- 
ing through  play  into  the  activities  of  other 
lives.  Do  not  smile  when  I  add  that  he  was 
beginning  to  learn  that  form  of  philosophic 
thought  which  reasons  that  all  created 
things  must  have  a  creator. 

This  may  seem  absurd  to  you,  but  never- 
theless it  is  true.  The  child  who  has  every- 
thing brought  to  him  ready  made  can  not 
develop  what  is  called  "  inventive  power  " 
as  can  the  child  who  has  learned  how  to 
make  things. 


142  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

III 

Let  us  now  take  up  a  form  of  creative 
play  which  is  known  as  "  dramatic  play  "  in 
which  the  child's  body,  the  expression  of  his 
face,  the  gesture  of  his  arms,  the  tone  of 
his  voice  are  the  chief  instruments  used, 
although  occasionally  a  bit  of  drapery  or 
other  accessories  will  add  much  to  his  en- 
joyment of  expressing  to  the  outside  world 
some  of  the  surging,  ever-active  inner  world. 
In  dramatic  play  the  child  is  striving  not 
only  to  gain  more  of  human  life  by  under- 
standing more  of  the  people  about  him,  but 
he  is  also  learning  to  recognize  his  own 
spiritual  inner-self  by  putting  it  forth  or 
uttering  it  in  dramatic  form,  in  order  that 
he  may  the  better  understand  it.  This  is 
the  child's  deepest  need  at  this  period  of 
life.  It  is  the  beginning  of  his  effort  to  un- 
derstand the  conduct  of  other  people,  which 
is  always  and  at  all  times  of  great  value. 
The  child  here  puts  forth  his  effort  in  play 
and  unconsciously  feels  the  result  of  the 
play.  It  is  his  way  of  enlarging  his  life  by 
adding  the  life  of  others  to  his  personal 
experience  through  re-enacting  the  human 
activities  about  him. 
As  has  already  been  said,  the  adult  ex- 


The  Child's  Art  World  143 

presses  his  spiritual  life  in  forms  of  art, 
either  the  art  of  the  plastic  world,  such  as 
sculpture,  painting,  carving,  or  building 
beautiful  buildings,  or  he  expresses  it  in 
writing,  singing  or  in  the  drama.  These 
are  the  great  forms  of  art,  but  the  greatest 
and  most  beautiful  of  all  art  expression  is 
beautiful  living  where  the  gracious,  serene 
and  sincere  self  is  to  be  seen  in  every  word 
and  deed. 

What  do  we  mean  when  we  say  of  the 
teacher  that  "  she  is  an  artist  in  her  work  "? 
Is  it  not  that  she  puts  her  whole  soul  into 
her  work  and  makes  it  so  beautiful  that  it  is 
a  joy  to  see  her  with  her  children?  Who 
is  there  among  us  who  does  not  recognize 
that  sublimest  of  all  forms,  the  beautiful  in 
the  ideal  mother's  beautiful  love  shown  in 
the  wise  nurturing  and  training  of  her 
children? 

Does  this  interpretation  of  the  dramatic 
play  of  children  seem  mystical  or  far-fetched 
to  you?  If  so,  observe  the  children  around 
you  with  this  thought  in  mind  and  see  how 
direct  and  child-like  their  play  is.  And  yet 
it  is  always  the  child  trying  to  be  at  one 
with  the  thing  played.  As  a  rule  the  more 
robust    and   vitally    alive   a    child    is    the 


IH  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

more  heartily  he  plays;  that  is,  the  more 
eagerly  he  tries  to  get  hold  of  the  life  about 
him,  to  make  it  his  own.  Let  me  give  you 
an  illustration  of  one  of  the  many  hundred 
scenes  of  this  kind  with  which  my  memory 
is  stored.  I  was  on  a  visit  to  my  sister  once 
at  Christmas  time  when  her  little  boy,  two 
and  a  half  years  old,  was  given  a  toy  menag- 
erie, the  animals  of  which  averaged  about 
two  and  a  half  inches  in  size.  The  father 
and  the  uncle  of  the  boy  amused  themselves 
by  describing  to  him  the  wildness  and  sav- 
agery of  some  of  the  strange  new  animals 
represented  by  the  toys.  As  he  was  a  child 
of  vivid  imagination  he  soon  became 
frightened  and  refused  to  play  with  the 
menagerie. 

Among  the  animals  was  a  lion,  the  de- 
scription of  whose  roars  and  savage  strength 
seemed  to  intimidate  the  little  fellow  more 
than  any  of  the  other  animals.  A  few  days 
later  I  came  unseen  by  him  into  his  play- 
room. He  had  put  the  toy  lion  behind  the 
bars  of  the  cage  which  came  with  the 
menagerie  and  had  placed  himself  in  a 
crouching  attitude  on  his  hands  and  knees 
just  in  front  of  the  cage.  He  then  roared 
loudly  and  shook  his  head  as  much  like  a 


The  Child's  Art  World  145 

lion  as  his  limited  knowledge  permitted; 
then  he  paused  to  see  the  effect  of  this  chal- 
lenge to  the  wild  beast.  Soon  he  began 
gnashing  his  teeth  and  roaring  again  with 
savage  fierceness,  shaking  his  head  at  the 
same  time.  After  this  highly  dramatic  per- 
formance had  been  re-enacted  several  times, 
he  called  out,  "  I  am  not  afraid  of  you ! 
Come  out  of  your  cage,  you  old  lion."  With 
that  he  reached  his  hand  in  the  cage  and 
drew  forth  the  lion.  His  timidity  had  van- 
ished because  he  had  taken  the  supposed 
fierceness  of  the  lion  into  himself,  and  had 
discovered  that  he  too  could  roar  and  gnash 
his  teeth.  In  other  words  he  had  added  lion 
life  to  little  boy  life  and  therefore  felt  equal 
to  the  lion  and  even  his  superior. 

I  have  related  the  above  incident  because 
it  illustrates  the  early  stage  of  imitation, 
namely,  the  imparting  of  the  child's  own  life 
to  inanimate  objects,  which  is  usually  called 
animism.  The  child  thus  imparting  the 
only  kind  of  life  he  really  knows,  which  is 
his  own,  oftentimes  represents  quite  ear- 
nestly the  supposed  activity  of  the  object. 
When  your  two  or  three-year-old  boy  noisily 
rushes  around  the  room  puffing  out  "  choo, 
choo,  choo  "  then  calls  out  "  toot,  toot,  toot," 


146  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

he  has  attributed  life  to  the  attractive 
steam-engine  in  order  that  he  may  add 
steam-engine  experience  and  thereby  under- 
stand steam-engine  life.  This  is  one  way  at 
this  stage  of  his  development  that  he  can 
come  into  a  sympathetic  understanding  of 
the  steam-engine.  When,  with  a  string  tied 
around  his  w^aist,  he  delightedly  gallops 
along  in  front  of  you,  pawing  and  shaking 
his  imaginary  mane,  he  is  trying  to  add 
horse-experience  to  his  own  experience  and 
thereby  to  understand  horse-life.  The  only 
way  he  can  get  this  added  life  as  yet,  let 
me  again  repeat,  is  to  impart  his  own  life 
and  feelings  to  the  objects  about  him  and 
then  to  interpret  their  external  appearance 
or  manifestations  by  how  he  would  feel  if 
he  were  those  objects  —  steam-engine,  horse 
or  what  not.  It  is,  therefore,  a  mistake  to 
try  to  divert  a  child  from  auto-education  or 
self-instruction  when  he  is  engaged  in  this 
kind  of  play,  by  laughing  at  him  and  thus 
making  him  self-conscious,  for  this  shuts 
the  door  of  steam-engine  life  or  galloping- 
horse  life  and  brings  him  painfully  back  to 
merely  little-boy  life  with  its  limited  experi- 
ences. It  is  equally  harmful  to  try  to  give 
to  a  child  who  is  thus  playing,  a  scientific 


The  Child's  Art  World  147 

explanation  of  the  facts  of  the  case.  He 
is  not  yet  ready  for  scientific  laws  and  facts. 
He  must  first  gain  a  live  and  sympathetic 
interest  in  the  animate  and  inanimate  world 
about  him  through  his  simple  childish  ef- 
forts to  understand  these  by  putting  his 
own  life  into  the  life  of  the  world  about  him. 

Let  me  give  an  instance  of  a  less  imagi- 
native character,  one  of  the  kind  that  is 
taking  place  every  day  in  the  average  home. 
I  was  calling  on  an  intimate  friend  one 
morning  when  our  conversation  was  inter- 
rupted several  times  by  her  little  two-year- 
old  boy  coming  in  front  of  her  and  dropping 
a  book  on  the  floor,  at  the  same  time  calling 
out  in  a  slow,  drawling  tone,  "  D-i-i-z-e ! " 
He  would  then  trot  off,  hunt  up  another 
book,  bring  it  to  her,  drop  it  on  the  floor  as 
he  had  dropped  the  former  book,  and  again 
drawl  out  in  a  sing-song  tone  of  utter  indif- 
ference "  D-i-i-z-e." 

After  this  somewhat  unique  performance 
had  been  repeated  three  or  four  times,  the 
mother  said,  "  Yes,  yes,  dearie,  run  away 
now.  Mamma  is  busy." 

"  What  is  he  trying  to  do?  "  I  asked,  for 
I  realized  he  was  dead  in  earnest  over  it, 
whatever  it  was.    "  Oh,  he  is  just  playing," 


148  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

she  replied  laughingly.  "But  playing 
what? "  I  persisted.  Then  she  explained 
that  each  morning  while  she  was  dressing 
him,  they  could  see  from  the  bedroom  win- 
dow the  ice-man  drive  up,  jump  off  his 
wagon,  pick  up  their  block  of  ice  between 
his  tongs  and  drop  it  over  the  gate  into  their 
yard,  calling  out  at  the  same  time,  "  Ice !  " 
and  that  it  was  a  favorite  game  of  her  child 
to  play  that  he  was  the  ice-man.  I  took  up 
the  game  much  to  the  little  fellow's  delight, 
and  played  that  I  was  a  nearby  neighbor 
who  consumed  a  vast  amount  of  ice.  Each 
time  he  deposited  a  book  in  front  of  me,  I 
called  out,  "  Please  bring  me  some  more  ice 
this  afternoon."  At  this  he  would  nod  glee- 
fully and  run  off  to  pull  down  another  book 
from  the  book  shelf  or  table.  When  he 
would  bring  this  new  supply  of  ice,  I  would 
call  out  as  if  from  an  upstairs  window, 
"  Mr.  Ice-man,  will  you  be  so  kind  as  to  lay 
that  ice  over  there  in  the  shade?  I  am 
afraid  it  will  melt  where  it  is.  The  sun  is 
so  hot  to-day."  I  thus  helped  him  to  live 
for  the  time  being  the  life  of  an  ice-man  and 
thus  enlarge  his  own  narrow  life. 

Let    me   again    illustrate   how   this   im- 
portant   activity    of    childhood    is    often 


TJie  Child's  Art  World  149 

thwarted  by  well-intentioned  adults.  I  was 
on  a  railway  train  one  breezy  spring  day, 
and  just  opposite  to  my  seat  was  an  intelli- 
gent-looking gentleman  with  his  little  three- 
year-old  son.  He  had  placed  the  boy  on  the 
window  side  of  the  seat  and  then  opening 
his  newspaper  was  soon  absorbed  in  reading 
it.  The  little  fellow  amused  himself  for  a 
time  by  looking  out  of  the  window  at  the 
passing  objects.  He  then  began  to  ask  ques- 
tions concerning  them,  but  as  he  received  no 
replies  from  his  father,  he  soon  tired  of  this 
occupation.  He  next  began  a  restless  climb- 
ing off  and  on  the  seat.  This  slightly  dis- 
tracted his  father  who,  almost  unconscious 
of  what  he  was  saying,  uttered  the  words, 
"  Keep  still,  Henry,  can't  you !  "  The  lit- 
tle fellow  obeyed  as  long  as  he  could,  then 
the  restlessness  began  again.  I  motioned 
for  him  to  come  over  and  share  my  seat  with 
me.  He  turned  eagerly  to  the  father  and 
said,  "  That  lady  over  there  wants  me  to 
come  over  and  visit  with  her,  can't  I  go?  " 
The  father  looked  at  me  for  a  moment, 
smiled  and  bowed  his  consent,  and  in  an- 
other moment  the  child  was  climbing  joy- 
fully into  my  corner  nearest  the  window. 
We  chatted  together  for  a  while,  when  sud- 


150  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

denly  the  engine  of  the  train  blew  a  long, 
sharp,  shrill  whistle.  "  What  did  the  car 
say  then?  "  the  little  fellow  asked,  turning 
eagerly  to  me. 

I  realized  that  he  wanted  to  put  his  life 
in  touch  with  the  new  life  about  him  and 
that  in  his  stage  of  development  this  could 
only  be  done  through  imagination.  So  I 
replied,  "  Oh,  it  was  just  saying  '  good  morn- 
ing '  to  the  trees  and  cattle  and  things  that 
we  pass  on  the  road." 

A  pleased  smile  lighted  his  face.  Again 
the  train  whistled,  and  again  he  asked, 
"  What  did  it  say  this  time?  "  and  I  replied, 
"It  said  *  Good  morning!  Good  morning! 
How  do  you  do,'  to  all  those  tall  old  trees 
over  there.  Don't  you  see  they  are  bowing 
'  Good  morning '  to  the  train?  "  He  nodded 
assent  and  then  said,  "  Tell  me  some  more 
about  how  the  engine  talks  to  the  trees." 

This  was  followed  by  an  imaginary  and 
friendly  conversation  between  the  trees  that 
had  lived  all  their  lives  in  one  place  and  the 
engine  that  had  led  a  varied  train-life,  com- 
ing and  going  through  many  towns  and  see- 
ing many  people.  The  boy  was  greatly  in- 
terested in  this  play  of  fancy  as  it  was  en- 
larging his  world  and  quickening  his  sym- 


The  Child's  Art  World  151 

pathies.  But  the  newspaper  in  the  seat  op- 
posite rattled  uneasily. 

In  a  few  minutes  more  the  train  again 
whistled  and  again  the  boy  asked  eagerly 
for  an  interpretation  of  the  shrill  sound, 
and  again  I  created  an  imaginary  conversa- 
tion. This  was  too  much  for  the  father 
across  the  aisle  and  he  said,  "  Come  over 
here,  Henry,  I  want  you." 

The  boy  reluctantly  obeyed.  Again,  in  a 
short  time,  the  engine  whistled  once  more. 
The  little  fellow  looked  up,  his  face  full  of 
animation  as  he  asked,  "  Papa,  what  did  the 
train  say  that  time?  "  The  father  laid  down 
his  paper  and,  turning  to  the  boy,  said  quite 
seriously,  "  My  son,  an  engine  is  made  of 
iron,  it  cannot  talk;  the  sound  you  hear  is 
that  of  steam  escaping  from  the  boiler. 
Some  day  I  will  take  you  out  and  show  you 
how  the  steam  escapes  and  what  causes  the 
noise  you  hear."  With  that  he  resumed  the 
reading  of  his  paper  and  the  little  boy,  ex- 
iled thus  ruthlessly  from  a  world  of  imag- 
inary companionship  to  which  he  had  a  right, 
sat  silent  and  dejected  with  his  hands  folded 
in  his  lap,  looking  drearily  out  of  the 
window. 

This  semi-tragedy  of  childhood  need  not 


152  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

have  taken  place  had  the  father  understood 
the  necessary  steps  in  the  growth  of  a  child's 
inner  life. 

Let  me  illustrate  with  a  still  higher  form 
of  dramatic  play,  without  inanimate  ob- 
jects —  play  in  which  the  child  tries  to  in- 
terpret human  emotions  through  actions  re- 
sulting from  human  emotions,  thus  not 
imputing  emotions  to  inanimate  objects  but 
re-enacting  the  deeds  of  human  beings. 

The  little  five-year-old  daughter  of  a 
friend  of  mine,  returning  home  from  a  week- 
end visit  with  her  grandmother,  was  full  of 
interest  in  the  story  of  Cinderella,  which 
she  had  heard  for  the  first  time  while  on 
her  visit.  She  told  it  and  retold  it  to  her 
mother  with  great  animation  and  evident 
pleasure  in  emphasizing  the  crossness  and 
irritability  of  the  wicked  stepmother.  Then 
she  said,  "  Oh,  let's  play  Cinderella.  We 
can  play  it  just  lovely !  You  be  Cinderella 
and  I  will  be  the  stepmother."  The  wise, 
young  mother,  realizing  that  her  child  was 
trying  to  internalize  phases  of  human  nature 
with  which  she  had  not  personally  come  in 
contact,  said,  "All  right!  What  shall  I 
do?"  The  child  replied:  "  You  stoop  right 
down  there  by  the  fireplace  and  play  you 


Tlie  Child's  Art  World  153 

are  scrubbing  the  floor,  and  you  must  be 
crying  just  as  hard  as  you  can  cry."  The 
mother  entered  into  the  spirit  of  the  play 
at  once  and  scrubbed  and  sobbed  in  fine 
dramatic  fashion.  The  little  girl  straight- 
ened her  body  into  the  haughty  attitude  of 
assumed  superiority  and  in  a  tone  of  con- 
temptuous scorn  said,  "  Now,  Cinderella, 
you  just  scrub  that  floor  good  and  hard,  and 
you  stop  your  crying,  I  tell  you!  Don't 
think  you  can  go  to  the  ball.  You  can't 
because  you  have  got  only  ragged  and  dirty 
clothes."  At  these  words,  the  new  Cin- 
derella began  to  sob  pitifully.  This  was 
too  much  for  the  tender-hearted  child.  In- 
stantly she  sprang  forward,  threw  her  arms 
around  her  mother's  neck  and  exclaimed, 
"  I'm  not  the  ugly,  old  stepmother  any 
longer !  I'm  the  fairy  god-mother !  "  Then 
turning  her  head  critically  to  one  side,  she 
said  in  a  light,  airy  tone,  "  Now,  my  dear, 
stop  your  crying  at  once  and  stand  up.  I 
am  going  to  send  you  to  the  prince's  ball  in 
a  beautiful  dress,  all  embroidered  in  gold." 
Touching  her  mother  lightly  with  her  hand, 
she  cried,  "  There,  now !  See  how  lovely 
you  look."  And  the  play  went  forward  rap- 
idly with  chairs  and  stools  representing  the 


154  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

coach  and  horses  supposed  to  be  made  from 
transformed  pumpkins  and  mice. 

By  trying  to  act  out  the  part  of  the  hard- 
hearted stepmother,  the  child  had  awakened 
to  a  consciousness  of  the  odiousness  of  such 
conduct  which  no  amount  of  didactic  moral- 
izing could  have  made  her  realize. 

What  more  does  the  great  actor  do  than 
through  his  imagination  fill  his  heart  so  full 
of  the  emotions  of  a  Hamlet  or  an  lago  that 
he  relives  for  the  brief  hour  the  Hamlet  or 
lago  life?  In  fact,  what  is  the  greatest  ser- 
vice that  a  great  artist  gives  to  humanity? 
Is  it  not  to  lend  us  his  eyes  that  we  may  see 
more  beauty,  to  give  us  what  he  hears  that 
we  may  hear  more  harmony,  to  touch  with 
his  sympathy  our  hearts  that  we  may  be 
more  alive  to  the  joys  and  sorrows  of  the 
world,  and  thereby  enter  more  into  the 
greater  meaning  of  life? 

This  is  why  President  Hadley  in  accept- 
ing the  Harkness  Memorial  Building  at 
Yale,  said,  "  Of  the  various  means  to  develop 
and  perpetuate  this  spiritual  side  of  educa- 
tion, beautiful  buildings  are  one  of  the  most 
important."  Cardinal  Newman  placed  them 
in  the  forefront  among  educational  agencies, 
as  more  essential  to  the  main  purposes  of  a 


The  Child's  Art  World  155 

college  than  anything  else.  There  are  many 
reasons  for  thinking  that  he  was  right.  A 
monumental  building,  if  it  be  really  beau- 
tiful and  glorious,  gives  a  visible  and  per- 
manent object  round  which  life  and  loyalty 
can  grow  and  to  which  tradition  and  senti- 
ment can  attach.  The  man  who  looks  out 
day  after  day  into  the  college  quadrangles 
of  Oxford  or  Cambridge  finds  a  stimulus 
both  to  his  love  of  beauty  and  to  his  love 
of  learning. 

This  is  why  every  form  of  art  lifts  the 
emotional  life  of  man  beyond  bodily  appe- 
tites and  passions. 

No  wonder  the  wise  old  Catholic  Church 
sought  art  in  her  structures,  her  stained 
glass  windows,  her  frescoed  walls  and  sol- 
emn rituals.  But  there  is  something  greater 
than  an  appreciation  of  art,  and  that  is  the 
creation  of  some  art  expression  which  to  be 
true  art  must  come  from  the  inmost  depths 
of  the  soul.  It  must  be  se7/-expression,  and 
when  this  self-expression  is  noble,  it  becomes 
beauty  and  we  come  nearer  that  "  image  of 
God  "  which  the  world  of  art  tell  us  is  a 
reality  because  man  alone  can  create  it. 


156  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

RECESSIONAL 

Man's  conviction  tliat  his  spiritual  self  is 
at  one  with  God  is  the  foundation  of  re- 
ligion. With  this  thought  in  mind  let  us 
recall  the  closing  sentence  of  the  greatest 
and  at  the  same  time  the  most  practical  ser- 
mon ever  preached  on  the  subject  of  religion. 
"  Be  ye,  therefore,  perfect,  even  as  your 
Father  in  Heaven  is  perfect."  Note  that 
throughout  this  sermon  Jesus  gives  no  theo- 
logical dogma,  no  formal  ritual  is  presented. 
It  is  simply  the  translating,  oftentimes 
transfiguring,  the  common-place  affairs  of 
life  by  showing  their  spiritual  significance. 

The  theological  teachings  and  the  im- 
pressive symbolic  rituals  of  this  or  that 
church  have  their  significant  place  as  en- 
vironing influences  over  their  people.  They 
are  the  mother  tongue  through  which  chil- 
dren learn  to  express  religious  emotions. 
But  these  are  not  enough  unless  they  lead  to 
consciousness  of  union  with  God. 

The  surest  possible  preparation  for  the 
great  at-one-ment  with  the  Divine  Creator 
and  Source  of  all  things,  is  the  fundamental 
foundation  of  the  religion  that  shows  itself 
in  service  to  mankind  and  love  and  rever- 
ence for  God.    More  than  this,  a  child  who 


Recessional  157 

has  been  brought  up  to  have  a  friendly  rela- 
tionship toward  all  about  him,  has  ten  times 
the  chance  of  coming  in  contact  with  the 
best  in  the  people  by  whom  he  is  surrounded, 
and  thereby  to  have  the  inspiration  and  the 
help  which  such  revelations  bring.  Whereas, 
the  child  whose  social  instinct  has  been 
warped  or  starved,  is  apt  to  be  critical  be- 
cause of  this  isolation  of  his  soul.  In  such 
a  condition,  of  course,  he  calls  forth  the  dis- 
agreeable limitations  of  his  associates,  and 
in  consequence,  his  belief  of  what  is  heroic 
or  great  in  his  fellow-man  lessens  and  his 
vision  of  God  becomes  dim. 

Insight  illumines  necessary  work  and 
makes  of  it  a  divine  opportunity  to  help  our 
children  to  live  richer,  fuller  lives.  Like  all 
other  really  precious  things,  insight  costs 
much. 

You  must  really  want  to  help  your  chil- 
dren to  grow  into  noble  men  and  women 
more  than  you  want  anything  else  in  the 
worlds  or  you  will  not  be  willing  to  pay 
the  price  that  true  insight  demands.  I  have 
tried  to  give  you  a  few  devices,  some  prac- 
tical suggestions,  a  certain  general  method 
of  dealing  with  the  average  child,  but  I  can- 
not give  you  insight.    That  comes  only  when 


158  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

we  try  to  live  according  to  the  highest 
standards  we  can  comprehend,  no  matter 
how  much  effort  it  may  cost. 

A  great  teacher  has  said  that  one  of  the 
chief  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  religious 
development  of  our  children  is  our  own  lack 
of  vital  piety.  "  It  is  easy  to  teach  the  cate- 
chism, but  it  is  not  easy  to  awaken  and  fos- 
ter the  spirit  of  faith,  hope  and  love.  Any 
mother  can  force  her  child  to  memorize  the 
definition  of  God,  but  only  a  mother  who 
has  herself  the  filial  spirit  can  teach  him  to 
know  his  Heavenly  Father.  She  whose  own 
eoul  is  dead  may  be  a  religious  drill  master, 
but  only  the  living  spirit  can  communicate 
spiritual  life."  * 

Dr.  Marie  Montessori  when  questioned 
concerning  her  ideas  of  religious  training 
of  children,  almost  invariably  answered: 
"  Young  children  cannot  know  God.  They 
can  only  feel  Him,"  which  was  her  way  of 
making  simple  the  psychological  fact  that 
all  religion  is  based  on  the  emotional  nature, 
although  it  is  strengthened  by  the  develop- 
ment of  the  will  in  the  right  direction  and 
it  is  clarified  by  thought. 

The  great  affirmation  of  Christianity  that 

•  Susan  Blow  in  "  Educational  Issues." 


Recessional  159 

there  is  a  beneficent  Personality  at  the  cen- 
ter of  the  Universe  which  we  call  God  is 
confirmed  by  the  conviction  that  "  I  am  I." 
It  is  the  power  of  this  conviction  that  rises 
above  bodily  conditions  that  assures  us  of 
the  truth  that  there  is  something  within  us 
that  is  beyond  the  body.  Else  why  is  it 
that  you  and  I  have  smiled  while  tears  were 
dropping  from  our  eyes,  that  in  the  midst 
of  unrest  we  have  attained  unto  rest,  that 
in  sorrow  some  of  us  have  found  that  peace 
which  passeth  understanding?  This  union 
between  man  and  God  is  the  central  thought 
of  FroebeFs  theory  of  education.  A  famous 
biologist*  has  recently  acknowledged  most 
frankly  that  he  finds  his  serious  biological 
studies  interfered  with  in  a  confusing  way 
when  he  thinks  of  sympathy,  love,  pride  and 
hope.  Such  emotions  have  not  yet  been 
explained  by  the  most  earnest  and  learned 
scientists.  Has  any  present-day  materialist 
taught  us  how  the  bodily  functions  cause 
thought  to  think  thought? 

I  have  tried  to  emphasize  in  the  foregoing 
chapters  of  this  book  the  important  fact 
that  the  child  should  begin  at  the  beginning 
of  active  life  to  know  he  is  an  individual  and 
that  he  should  grow  steadily   in  the  con- 

•  Dr.  Vernon  Kellogg  in  Atlantic  Monthly,  May,  1921. 


160  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

sciousness  that  lie  must  develop  separate 
and  distinct  from  all  other  individuals 
whom  he  may  meet,  that  he  must  be  re- 
sponsible for  his  own  deeds  and  for  his  share 
in  the  betterment  of  the  community  in 
which  he  lives.  Then  the  Comtist  theory  of 
racial  growth,  in  which  the  life  of  the  indi- 
vidual with  its  temptations,  its  struggles, 
its  defeats  and  its  victories  is  to  be  sub- 
merged, will  seem  less  plausible. 

Some  few  parents  wishing  to  avoid  teach- 
ing what  seems  to  them  to  be  the  out-worn 
creed  of  past  traditions,  and  some  who  are 
not  quite  sure  of  what  they  themselves  be- 
lieve, try  to  get  rid  of  the  problem  of  the 
religious  training  of  their  young  children 
by  postponing  all  teaching  concerning  the 
supernatural.  They  might  as  well  try  to 
postpone  the  growth  of  a  child's  muscles  or 
the  development  of  his  nervous  system. 
Some  theory  concerning  this  unseen  but 
very  real  life  about  him  will  inevitably  arise 
within  him,  as  shown  by  the  questionings 
of  children  as  soon  as  they  can  talk.  Aye, 
even  before  they  can  formulate  sentences 
their  questioning  eyes,  the  alert  turn  of 
their  heads  at  any  unusual  sound,  the  puz- 
zled expression  on  their  baby  faces,  each 


Recessional  161 

tells  that  the  spirit  within  is  already  seeking 
the  unseen  cause  of  things. 

If  the  mother  is  not  ready  or  not  willing 
to  undertake  this  most  delicate  and  im- 
portant part  of  her  child's  training,  then 
eome  one  else  will  do  it.  Her  child  will  get 
it  from  his  ignorant  superstitious  nurse,  or 
from  his  untrained  Sunday  School  teacher, 
or  from  some  older  but  still  immature  child^ 
or  in  the  bewilderment  of  his  own  little 
mind  he  will  build  up  some  crude  confusing 
explanation  of  the  questionings  that  arise 
within  him.  The  extremely  interesting 
study  of  the  superstition  of  children  in  gen- 
eral help,  if  any  other  proof  is  needed,  and 
the  sympathetic  study  of  one's  own  child 
and  his  questions  prove  this.  Most  mothers, 
however,  realize  in  some  fashion  the  sacred- 
ness  of  their  high  office  and  strive  to  lead 
the  inquiring  young  soul  into  some  form  of 
religious  belief,  and  oftentimes  their  blun- 
ders are  as  pitiful  as  is  the  child's  unaided 
fetish  worship. 

The  training  of  a  child  along  lines  that 
help  him  to  accept  the  teachings  of  Jesus 
Christ  concerning  the  Fatherhood  of  God 
and  the  Brotherhood  of  Man  and  to  strive 
to  live  according  to  this  divine  conception 


162  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

of  life  is  the  parent's  supreme  duty  and  the 
child's  greatest  need  and  is  the  true  basis 
of  education.  It  includes  all  that  is  best  for 
man's  body,  for  his  heart,  his  will  and  his 
thought  and  it  is  his  surest  guide  into  true 
service  for  his  fellow-men.  Let  us  remem- 
ber always  that  it  is  what  a  man  is,  not  what 
he  does,  that  counts  most  in  the  sum  total  of 
life,  and  helps  most  to  strengthen  our  faith 
in  God  and  immortality. 


Present-Day  Tendencies  163 


PKESENT-DAY    TENDENCIES 

Throughout  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century  man  learned  to  control  the  forces 
of  nature  as  he  had  never  dreamed  of  before, 
and  science  seemed  to  advance  by  leaps  and 
bounds.  In  a  single  half-century  he  mas- 
tered many  of  her  laws  and  learned  to  ap- 
ply them  to  his  every-day  life  as  he  had  not 
done  in  any  thousand  years  of  the  world's 
past  history.  And  now  in  this  first  quarter 
of  the  twentieth  century,  having  learned 
that  nature  seems  immutable  in  the  regu- 
larity with  which  she  obeys  these  laws,  he 
has  caused  her  to  work  miracles  before  our 
eyes. 

For  example,  when  we  think  of  the  sci- 
ence of  mechanics,  we  see  how  man  has 
caused  nature  to  defy  gravity  and  lift  tons 
of  weight  into  the  air  and  speed  through 
space  with  the  swiftness  of  time.  We  have 
but  to  recall  how  brief  has  been  the  period 
since  man  learned  to  compress  and  condense 
his  forts,  and  putting  them  on  wheels,  send 
them  forth  over  ditches,  climbing  steep  hill- 
sides, butting  through  thick  walls  to  the 
battlefields,  there  to  crush  all  that  opposes 


164  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

tliem.  These  are  but  two  striking  instances 
of  the  thousand  things  that  the  mind  of  man 
has  done  in  the  name  of  science,  in  order  to 
enforce  his  passion  of  hatred  or,  perchance, 
to  check  the  greed  and  ambition  that  would 
destroy  the  slowly  growing  ideals  of  the 
w^orld. 

Think  of  the  marvels  that  chemistry  has 
performed.  Note  how  the  mind  of  man  has 
succeeded  in  extracting  nitrogen  from  the 
air  and  has  fertilized  his  fields  with  it,  caus- 
ing them  to  bear  from  three  to  five  times 
their  former  harvest;  and  how  he  has  con- 
densed the  oxygen  and  with  it  created  heat 
so  intense  that  it  melts  steel  into  molten 
liquid,  and  how  he  has  performed  other 
"  miracles  "  too  numerous  to  mention. 

Again  with  the  mere  mention  of  the  word 
"  electricity "  comes  the  vision  of  man's 
turning  night  into  day,  winter  into  summer 
and  summer  into  winter;  utilizing  the 
means  to  speed  along  the  great  highways, 
or  sooth  himself  into  quiet  repose  with 
sweet  music.  All  these  things  and  many 
more  has  man  achieved  since  he  has  learned 
that  nature  has  laws  and  that  he  must  obey 
themo 

Frequently  the  earnest  student  of  any 


Present-Day  Tendencies  165 

branch  of  science,  be  it  astronomy,  geology 
or  other  "  sub-human  "  study,  forgets  that 
it  is  the  mind  of  man  which  has  mastered 
these  laws  and  utilized  them. 

Therefore,  when  we  come  to  biology  why 
should  we  be  surprised  that  the  biologist, 
absorbed  in  his  own  great  work,  seems  to 
forget  that  mightiest  of  all  forces  which  we 
call  the  self  or  mind  of  man? 

I  have  attempted  to  condense  the  many 
books  that  I  have  studied,  the  many  maga- 
zine articles  that  I  have  read  and  lectures 
and  convention  speeches  I  have  heard  in  the 
last  twenty  years,  into  as  simple  a  state- 
ment as  possible  of  the  main  theory  of  the 
following  list  of  leaders  in  the  educational 
world  who  do  not  accept  the  Christian  in- 
terpretation of  life.  They  have  been,  all  of 
them,  earnest,  sincere  men  searching  for 
more  light  in  the  dim  dawn  of  the  great 
world  of  psychology. 

We  are  learning  how  undreamed  of  pos- 
sibilities in  the  material  world  are  revealing 
themselves,  then  why  should  we  doubt  the 
undiscovered  possibilities  in  the  human 
mind.  At  the  present  time  the  educational 
processes  of  the  past  are  being  turned  up- 
side down  in  order  to  develop  the  creative 


166  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

power  of  the  child.  This  is  partly  because 
we  are  beginning  to  realize  that  education 
must  begin  in  infancy ;  partly  because  of  the 
appalling  educational  deficiency  of  men 
called  to  the  front  by  the  recent  war ;  partly 
also  because  of  the  brilliant  discoveries  of 
modern  science. 

The  danger  before  us  lies  in  our  overesti- 
mate of  the  value  of  ingenuity  and  skill  in 
the  use  of  materials  to  the  neglect  of  cre- 
ative thought.  If  the  former  is  the  im- 
portant thing  in  education  our  mechanical 
inventors  in  the  development  of  material 
power  would  take  precedence  over  our 
teachers,  poets  and  the  prophets.  We  who 
subscribe  to  the  Christian  philosophy  are 
still  clinging  to  narrow  creeds  and  dogmatic 
interpretations  of  the  Bible.  We  are  still 
apt  to  give  lip-service  instead  of  life-service. 
Our  spiritual  advance  is  not  keeping  pace 
with  our  material  advance,  and  yet,  there 
are  strong  indications  to-day  that  science 
and  religion  are  reaching  out  to  clasp  hands. 
Science  is  admitting  that  it  must  have  faith 
in  unknown  power  and  future  possibilities, 
else  it  must  cease  experimenting;  religion  is 
recognizing  that  faith  must  be  accompanied 
by  works  or  it  is  of  no  value;  and  philoso- 


Present-Bay  Tendencies         167 

phy  is  asking  psychology  "  How  do  you  ex- 
plain thought's  power  to  think  thought?  " 

The  "  theistic  philosophers  "  —  the  think- 
ers who  place  a  personality  at  the  center  of 
the  universe  —  are  the  only  teachers  who 
have  explained  genius.  To  them  it  is  the 
downpour  of  the  over-soul  which  Christian- 
ity has  called  the  inspiration  from  God. 
For  a  good  illustration  of  this  read  Vernon 
Kellogg  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  May  and 
June,  1921,  on  the  subject  of  Life  and  Death 
from  a  biologist's  standpoint,  and  Harry 
Emerson  Fosdick's  little  book  entitled, 
"  The  Meaning  of  Faith."  Other  broad- 
minded  men  are  making  the  same  con- 
cessions. 

The  question  of  how  shall  the  finite  ex- 
plain the  infinite  reaches  far  back  into  the 
past.  We  hear  Socrates  driving  home  the 
truth  concerning  it  with  the  unanswerable 
logic  of  his  questions,  Epictetus  reasoning 
about  it,  and  Marcus  Aurelius  meditating 
upon  it. 

I  feel  almost  as  if  an  apology  were  needed 
in  summarily  condensing  the  writings  of 
grave  and  learned  men,  whose  devotion  to 
their  special  field  of  study  demands  our  sin- 
cerest  respect  and  admiration.    But  this  is 


168  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

not  a  book  on  anthropology,  biology,  phys- 
iological psychology  or  pragmatism.  It  is 
a  book  which  concerns  itself  with  the  Chris- 
tian explanation  of  the  higher  human  in- 
stincts and  its  application  to  the  early  life 
of  childhood. )  The  writings  of  the  men  men- 
tioned may  be  obtained  at  any  public 
library.  I  have  a  list  of  some  forty-six  of 
them  and  each  year  adds  more  names.  But 
the  documents  of  Christian  writers  are  as 
the  sands  of  the  sea. 

If  we  go  no  further  back  than  to  Herbert 
Spencer,  we  get  a  connected  outline  of  the 
ups  and  downs  of  the  psychology  which 
leaves  out  God,  In  Spencer's  book  "  Edu- 
cation "  and  also  in  his  "  Psychology  "  he 
explains  the  activity  which  the  child  ex- 
hibits in  play  as  so  much  "  surplus  energy  " 
not  needed  in  the  maintaining  of  physical 
life.  To  him  these  necessary  activities  do 
not  absorb  all  the  vitality  created  by  sleep 
and  food,  and  this  "  surplus  energy "  is 
used  in  play.  This  is,  as  you  plainly  see,  a 
purely  physiological  explanation  of  child- 
life. 

Professor  Groos  in  his  "  Play  of  Man  " 
follows  Spencer  with  the  argument  that  this 
"  surplus    energy "    serves   as   practice   or 


Present-Day  Tendencies  169 

preparation  of  the  nerves  and  muscles  and 
senses  for  the  serious  pursuits  of  adult  life. 
So  his  theory  also  has  a  physiological  basis 
and  shows  no  spiritual  response  to  the 
acquisition  of  food,  clothing,  shelter  and  the 
propagation  of  the  race.  Yet  he  claims  this 
activity  is  instinctive;  that  it  is  born  in  the 
healthy  child,  no  matter  what  may  be  the 
race,  religion  or  economic  conditions.  His 
theory  seems  to  center  in  the  development 
of  the  higher  type  of  animal  called  man. 
He  does  not  answer  the  questions,  "  Is  there 
a  God?"  "Is  immortality  a  dream  or 
not?  "  In  one  place  he  says,  "  Even  in  tho 
case  of  instincts  which  are  not  now  useful 
it  does  not  follow  that  if  they  appear  before 
their  life-serving  usefulness,  they  must  serve 
as  a  practice  and  preparation  for  such  later 
use.  Nature  is  not  so  parsimonious  as  that 
would  indicate;  it  is  not  necessary  to  ex- 
plain doll  plays  of  little  girls  as  practice 
and  preparation  for  their  future  and  ma- 
ternal duties.  They  may  be  simply  exhibi- 
tions of  a  material  instinct  which  somehow 
in  the  life  of  the  individual  may  be  useful, 
as  when  a  tree  showers  down  ten  thousand 
seeds  of  which  only  one  may  germinate." 
Professor  Gross  does  not  seem  to  realize 


170  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

that  lie  is  giving  the  best  possible  argument 
for  the  theory  that  all  instincts  which  are 
shown  to  be  universal  must  be  of  value  in 
the  growth  of  the  individual  if  rightly  un- 
derstood, and  if  given  the  right  environing 
stimulus  and  protected  from  injurious  in- 
fluences. Luther  Burbank  and  his  co-work- 
ers have  demonstrated  the  almost  unbelieva- 
ble possibilities  of  what  may  be  done  in  the 
plant  world  by  right  care  of  seeds  and 
patient  study  of  what  have  hitherto  been 
called  worthless  weeds.  Shall  we  claim  less 
for  the  undeveloped  "  weeds  of  humanity  "? 

As  already  stated,  Dr.  Edwin  E.  Slosson 
in  his  book  "  Creative  Chemistry  "  tells  of 
the  transformations  that  have  been  achieved 
by  that  great  science.  They  would  seem  to 
be  but  the  excited  imagination  of  an  unbal- 
anced mind,  except  for  the  fact  that  they 
exist  and  are  being  used  in  a  multitude  of 
ways  undreamed  of  twenty  years  ago.  Why 
should  we  then  not  assume  that  the  in- 
stinctive activities  of  childhood  if  developed 
aright  will  function  the  higher  life  of  man- 
kind? This  is  a  problem  for  both  parents 
and  teachers  to  study  because  it  is  the  true 
"  science  of  education." 

The  difficulty  in  the  case  of  many  men  of 


Present-Day  Tendencies         171 

science  seems  to  be  that  they  have  given 
their  attention  exclusively  to  the  definite 
forms  of  life  or  to  the  material  forces  that 
have  been  discovered,  which  make  up  the 
finite  world  and  have  neglected  the  study  of 
the  infinite  Something  to  which  every  pro- 
cess of  reasoning,  every  outgo  of  emotion, 
every  physical  activity  inevitably  lead,  to 
God,  the  Infinite,  the  Unknown. 

In  the  psychology  that  is  being  promul- 
gated to-day  in  our  institutions  of  learning 
we  come  to  another  instance  of  the  mind  of 
man  trying  to  explain  the  infinite  by  ex- 
plaining the  finite. 

Herbart's  theory,  as  explained  by  De 
Garmo  in  "  Herbart  and  the  Herbartians," 
—  I  have  not  read  the  original  German, — 
claims  that  the  child's  free  activity  comes 
from  the  necessity  of  passing  through  the 
more  important  stages  of  racial  history. 
Dr.  Stanley  Hall,  in  his  great  book  "Ado- 
lescence," as  well  as  in  his  many  articles 
in  Journals,  says  that  the  seemingly  un- 
necessary activities  of  the  child  are  the  re- 
mains of  animal  activities  that  were  once 
necessary  for  the  preservation  of  life  in  the 
pre-human  world. 

Dr.  John  Dewey  in  his  "The  Child  and 


172  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

the  School,"  and  other  writings,  as  well  as 
in  his  demonstration  schools  in  Chicago  and 
New  York,  has  tried  to  show  that  the 
natural  environment  of  primitive  man  is 
being  taken  away  from  the  child  by  city  life 
and  by  the  use  of  machinery,  and  that  it 
must  be  artificially  supplied  in  the  school 
curriculum. 

Dr.  Patrick  claims  that  provision  must 
be  made  in  our  schools  for  more  play,  in 
order  to  counter-balance  the  strain  and 
stress  of  modern  life. 

Dr.  Kirkpatrick  insists  that  the  fighting 
instinct  is  the  first  instinct  to  manifest  itself 
in  the  race  and  in  the  child  —  fighting  for 
one's  mate  or  figthing  for  individual  self- 
expression.  But  he  adds  that  seeking  the 
favor  of  the  mate  also  develops  from  the 
racial  instinct  of  continuation.  In  other 
words,  self-development  and  propagation 
are  the  instincts  that  run  through  the  ani- 
mal and  human  world.  The  one  balances 
the  other;  the  one  creates  power,  the  other 
creates  the  desire  to  serve ;  the  one  develops 
individuality,  the  other  sympathy;  the  one 
awakens  desire  for  recognition  of  one's  self, 
one's  personal  ability  and  attainments;  the 
other  the  desire  to  give  some  part  of  one's 


Present-Day  Tendencies  173 

self  to  another.  Here  we  find  some  recog- 
nition of  the  spiritual  side  of  instincts  in 
man  as  contrasted  with  instinct  in  animals. 

Dr.  Watson,  whose  work  along  this  vast 
line  of  thought  has  made  him  one  of  the 
authorities,  with  the  modesty  of  the  true 
scientist  says,  "  I  believe  that  more  mere 
nothing  has  been  written  about  human  in- 
stincts than  any  other  subject  connected 
with  human  activity.  Those  of  you  who  are 
familiar  with  what  has  been  said  on  the  sub- 
ject know  that  most  elaborate  lists  of  human 
instincts  are  put  down.  Hence  anyone  at- 
tempting to  study  instinct  now  goes  in  with 
the  wrong  point  of  view.  He  sees  in  the 
child's  activity  examples  of  instinctive  ac- 
tion, regardless  of  whether  that  action  really 
belongs  to  the  original  nature  of  the  child 
or  to  his  social  surroundings."  Dr.  Watson 
later  adds,  "  I  have  spent  some  time  in  an 
orienting  study  of  the  instincts  but  my 
results  are  so  pitifully  meager  that  I 
advance  my  conclusions  with  a  great  deal 
of  hesitation." 

The  above  are  but  a  few  examples  —  with 
scores  of  present-day  psychologists  omitted 
—  of  the  many  who  have  attempted  to 
explain  life  without  including  the  Christian 


174  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

theory  of  a  personal  God  and  of  the  immor- 
tality of  the  human  soul,  which  has  done 
more  than  all  other  forces  to  lift  man  from 
the  state  of  the  beast  to  that  of  highest 
humanity. 

Unquestionably  the  child  has  been  helped 
to  attain  unto  a  larger  life  through  the  val- 
uable contribution  of  this  form  of  anthropo- 
logical research,  which  has  resulted  in  the 
demand  for  playgrounds,  school-gardens, 
pets,  excursions,  festivals,  pageants,  etc.,  all 
of  which  give  a  child  a  freer,  larger  physical 
life,  and  may  help  his  inner  life. 

The  recent  war  has  shown  the  world-wide 
struggle  between  hatred  and  idealism, 
between  retaliation  and  tolerance,  between 
greed  and  generosity,  between  profiteering 
and  patriotism;  in  fact,  seemingly  between 
all  that  is  good  and  bad  in  the  heart  of  man. 

A  century  or  more  will  be  needed  to  clear 
away  the  confusion  that  has  arisen  through 
the  conflict  of  so  many  emotions.  Then  it 
will  be  seen  that  "  the  Lord  hath  caused  the 
wrath  of  man  to  praise  him." 

The  war  has  already  awakened  America 
to  the  all-important  subject  of  the  health  of 
our  children.  When  thousands  of  young 
men  stood  ready  to  serve  our  country,  even 


Present-Day  Tendencies  175 

to  the  giving  up  of  life  itself,  they  were 
debarred  by  ill  health  caused  by  ignorance 
of  their  parents,  or  their  own  ignorance  of 
the  fact  that  sins  against  the  body  bring 
their  own  penalty. 

With  our  usual  energy  we  have  estab- 
lished a  nation-wide  campaign  for  health. 
The  children's  bureau  in  the  Department 
of  Labor  at  Washington,  D.  C,  sends  out, 
without  charge,  a  list  of  books  and  pamph- 
lets on  seemingly  every  topic  that  concerns 
the  health  of  children:  the  right  kind  of 
diet  and  exercise  for  the  pregnant  mother, 
the  prenatal  care  of  the  child;  the  danger 
of  employing  ignorant  mid-wives;  the 
prevention  of  blindness  at  time  of  birth; 
the  tremendous  importance  of  breast  feed, 
ing,  and  when  breast  feeding  is  not  possible, 
definite  directions  as  to  the  preparation  of 
pasturized  milk,  sterilized  milk,  condensed 
milk,  dried  milk  or  milk  powder  as  the  next 
best  food  to  be  given. 

Pamphlets  on  diet  for  children  from  the 
age  of  six  months  to  twelve  or  fourteen 
years  are  furnished  on  application.  All 
these  are  written  by  experts  of  agricultural 
colleges  or  domestic  science  schools  of 
national  reputation.    The  doctors,  surgeons 


176  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

and  nurses  have  contributed  simple  and 
easily  understood  directions  as  to  the  care 
of  the  skin,  the  hair,  the  eyes,  the  nose  and 
the  throat.  And  the  dental  associations 
have  given  invaluable  information  relative 
to  the  care  of  the  teeth.  How  to  detect  and 
meet  children's  diseases  is  also  explained 
for  any  mother  who  cares  for  the  health  of 
her  children. 

The  far-reaching  and  exceedingly  import- 
ant matter  of  weighing  and  measuring  chil- 
dren, as  a  means  of  discovering  normal  or 
subnormal  conditions  of  a  child's  health, 
has  been  especially  helpful.  The  United 
States  Government  has  intrusted  its  R.  F.  D. 
men  to  allow  rural  mothers  to  weigh  their 
infants  on  the  parcel-post  scales. 

In  my  own  state,  Illinois,  the  tender  and 
beautiful  thought  that  established  the  Eliz- 
abeth McCormick  Memorial  Fund  for  a 
little  eleven  year  old  daughter  of  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Cyrus  McCormick  has  made  it  possible 
for  mothers  throughout  the  state  to  know 
the  value  of  weighing  and  measuring  a  child 
as  a  test  of  his  physical  condition. 

Town  community  centers,  mother's  study- 
clubs,  parent-teacher  associations,  social 
settlements    and    visiting    nurses'    associa- 


Present-Day  Tendencies  111 

tions  all  stand  ready  to  give  information  as 
to  where  and  how  help  along  the  lines  of 
parental  efficiency  may  be  obtained,  or  how 
new  welfare  associations  may  be  estab- 
lished. Most  of  our  leading  newspapers 
have  health  departments  which  furnish 
advice  or  at  least  information  as  to  what  to 
read  or  where  to  apply  for  help. 

The  work  still  grows  and  much  more  can 
be  done.  This  national  movement  for  the 
welfare  of  the  child's  body  is  so  far-reach- 
ing, so  important  as  an  aid  in  the  making 
of  future  healthy  citizens,  that  it  can 
scarcely  be  over-estimated. 

And  yet  —  is  there  not  as  vital  a  need 
that  character  should  be  built  according  to 
spiritual  laws  as  that  the  body  should  be 
cared  for  with  reference  to  physical  laws? 
Our  psychologists  seem  to  have  turned  their 
attention  almost  exclusively  to  the  material 
side  of  life,  forgetting  that  the  spirit  grows 
on  what  it  feeds  upon  as  surely  as  the  body 
grows  on  what  it  is  fed  upon. 

"As  a  man  thinketh  in  his  heart  so  is  he." 

In  one  of  Maurice  Maeterlinck's  books  I 
came  across  the  following :  "  We  are  not 
considering  the  ordinary  text-book  psy- 
chology   which    concerns   itself   only    with 


178  Unseen  Side  of  Child  Life 

such  spiritual  phenomena  as  are  closely 
interwoven  with  the  material,  having 
indeed  usurped  the  beautiful  name  of 
Psyche.  The  psychology  of  which  I  speak 
is  transcendental  and  throws  light  on  the 
direct  relationship  that  exists  between  love 
and  soul  and  on  the  extraordinary  presence 
of  the  soul.  It  is  a  science  that  is  in  its 
infancy ;  but  by  it  shall  men  be  taken  a  full 
step  higher,  and  very  speedily  shall  it 
dismiss  the  elementary  phychology  that  is 
dominant  to-day." 

In  this  book  I  have  attempted  to  place 
before  you,  kind  reader,  the  two  explana- 
tions of  the  unseen  side  of  child  life.  The 
one  is  based  on  the  study  of  the  child's  body 
and  its  influence  upon  his  spiritual  life; 
the  other  is  based  on  the  spiritual  life  of 
the  child  and  its  influence  upon  his  material 
life. 

All  that  is  best  in  mankind,  all  that 
causes  him  to  rise  above  mere  gratification 
of  animal  instincts  is  the  result  of  the 
ideals^  which  increase  his  bodily  strenfith, 
extend  his  influence  for  good  in  his  com- 
munity and  add  assurance  that  there  is  life 
beyond  that  of  the  body. 

We  pray  "  Thy  kingdom  come.  Thy  will 


Preseut-Day  Tendencies  179 

be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven,"  for- 
getting that  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  within. 
It  is  the  man  behind  the  gun  that  does 
the  fighting,  not  the  gun.  We  may  destroy 
our  battleships  and  limit  our  armaments  but 
not  until  we  destroy  our  hatreds  and  limit 
our  greed  will  we  cease  to  be  in  danger  of 
war.  This  is  the  law  of  that  kingdom 
within.  We  forget  also  that  loyalty  can 
begin  and  should  begin  in  the  heart  of  the 
little  child. 


SOUTHERN  BRANCH, 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA, 

LIBRARY, 

\LOS  ANGELES,  CALIF. 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 

This  book  is  DLIE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


OlSCHARGE-URl. 
SEP    8  1980 


24139 


{y      3  1158  00615  0923 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA    001  177142   5 


